Vijay Iyer - Compassion

February 26, 2024

Label: ECM Records, 2024

Personnel - Vijay Iyer: piano; Linda May Han Oh: double bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums.

Revolutionary pianist Vijay Iyer reunites with bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, making their second appearance with Compassion, the knockout follow-up to their debut album, Uneasy (ECM, 2021). The trio, denoting a remarkable maturity, presents 12 tracks, including nine originals and three covers.

The album opens with the mesmerizing title track, “Compassion”, characterized by a modern creative gloss and a captivating equilibrium. Soft cymbal rubs and gentle snare pressure set the tone, gradually building alongside subdued bass and poignant pianism, evoking a vast harmonic landscape of emotional depth. “Arch”, dedicated to the anti-apartheid South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, follows suit with a piano figure and poised rhythmic matrix.

“Maelstrom” is a stunning composition rooted in classical protocols yet infused with a forward-thinking jazz feel. Expertly played, it features Iyer’s percussive attack on the lower register at some point, giving it a rock-solid danceability. “Tempest” is wild and metrically challenging, oozing an indomitable energy as the group navigates chord clusters and expresses fleet thoughts in the form of pivotal notes and screwy lines. Both pieces pay homage to the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Iyer drew inspiration from Chicago poet Eve L. Ewing on two selections, namely, the epic “Where I Am”, forging ahead with a robust rhythm and spartan fortitude, and “Ghostrumental”, driven by a nice pop/rock beat.

In addition to original compositions, the bandleader offers interpretations of Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed”, boosted by a kinetic three-time feel, Roscoe Mitchell’s “Nonaah”, a vivacious avant-jazz narrative with fragmentation and dilatation, and a mashup of John Stubblefield’s “Free Spirits” and Geri Allen’s “The Drummer’s Song”.

In the hands of these visionary musicians, jazz remains elegant and transformative. Iyer has proven time and time again that he explores deep, with imagination. Compassion confirms his special talents, echoing with an easy-on-the-ear sophistication.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Compassion ► 02 - Arch ► 04 - Maelstrom ► 06 - Tempest

Wadada Leo Smith / Jack DeJohnette / Vijay Iyer - Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday

December 9, 2021

Label: TUM Records, 2021

Personnel - Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Vijay Iyer: piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, electronics; Jack DeJohnette: drums.

Wadada Leo Smith is a heavyweight of the trumpet, one of the most emblematic figures in the 21st century avant-garde jazz. Beautiful things happened when, in 2016, he gathered with two other jazz giants and reliable partners, the pianist Vijay Iyer and the drummer Jack DeJohnette. The result is Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday, a five-track album with compositions of each plus one collective improvisation. DeJohnette and Iyer played with Smith in two different versions of his Golden Quartet, but never together.

Masterfully introduced by the drummer, whose tom-tom work balances wet and dry sounds in perfection, “Billie Holiday: a Love Sonnet” is one of Smith’s many dedications to the iconic American jazz singer referred in the title. The trumpeter begins his emotional phrases with pensive deliberation, but the colors drawn from Iyer’s opulent harmonies encourage him to hurl us into a vertiginous sequence. Whether subdued or zestful, DeJohnette’s drumming is unceasingly fantastic.

Smith makes another dedication with “The A.D. Opera: A Long Vision with Imagination, Creativity and Fire, a dance opera”, which was written for the pianist Anthony Davis, a long-time collaborator and also a member of his above mentioned quartet. The piano comes dressed in folk and avant-garde outfits, the trumpet is beautiful in tone and pinpoint in the attacks, while the reassuring drum work completes the poetic scenario. At some point, Iyer switches to organ, probing more mysterious tones, and then reverts to piano again for the hyper section that precedes an unruffled finale.

Iyer’s “Deep Time No. 1” features an excerpt of Malcolm X’s 1964 speech “By Any Means Necessary” over a pastoral-like texture spangled with electronics and organ, while DeJohnette’s “Song for World Forgiveness” is a poignant, selfless hymn of peace. This latter piece is taken to a broad spiritual sense, with the pianist and the drummer entangled in textures over which Smith towers his horn with certainty. It all ends in a liberating vamped sequence.

The trio wraps up with “Rocket”, a four-and-a-half-minute collective improvisation which, suggesting a blues progression, contains psychedelic Hammond, a sparkling rhythmic routine made of hi-hat, snare and bass drum, and explorative trumpet.

Smith, Iyer and DeJohnette bring their signature warmth and authenticity to music whose structure is not in disagreement with open-ended strategies.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Bille Holiday: A Love Sonnet ► 04 - Song for World Forgiveness ► 05 - Rocket

Vijay Iyer - Uneasy

April 13, 2021

Label: ECM Records, 2021

Personnel - Vijay Iyer: piano; Linda May Han Oh: double bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums

The musical genius of post-modern jazz pianist Vijay Iyer reaches new heights on Uneasy, his fourth trio album and sixth release on the ECM Records as a leader/co-leader. Having forged a revolutionary path in jazz, Iyer continues to break new ground, this time benefiting from the rhythmic wonders of a new trio with the drummer Tyshawn Sorey, a longtime partner, and the bassist Linda May Han Oh, with whom he recorded in 2011 for the Dave Douglas Quintet. The music takes a more jazzified route here, in the sense that it’s intrinsically connected to tradition and form, detaching from that free-er and experimental side presented in his works with Craig Taborn and Wadada Leo Smith.

Composed over a span of 20 years, some of the pieces strive to bring sociopolitical predicaments and disorders in America to the human conscience. The opener, “Children of Flint”, is one of those cases, calling the attention for the lead poisoning water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Written in 2019, it emerges here with an astonishingly detailed theme statement and angular melodic refinement, as well as an elegant bass solo over Sorey's dry flat tom-tom sounds and curious cymbal patterns.

Another good illustration is “Combat Breathing”, which relates to the early Black Lives Matter movement and materializes in coiled blues threads that gravitate around an 11-beat cycle. The introductory solo piano section leads to firm pedal points and sagaciously bluesy lines ironed out with sporadic assertive motifs rather than cryptic patterns. The intensity refrains during a twinkle-toed bass dance that comes firmly guided by emotions.

Three pieces ooze relaxation and poignancy from its pores - “Touba” is handled in five and resulted from the fruitful collaboration between Iyer and Boston hip-hop artist Mike Ladd; “Augury” is an emotionally strong solo piano effort; and “Entrustment”, a tribute to the cave temples of Dunhuang in China and its multicultural heritage, is delivered in seven with a warm compelling sound.

“Uneasy” channels a sense of restlessness at the outset but soon morphs into an ecstatic trip with variations in dynamics, attack and density. In turn, “Configurations” harkens back to 2001, bringing back the South Indian sonics and impressively intricate progressions of the album Panoptic Modes (Pi Recordings).

The pianist also squeezes in the jazz standard “Night and Day” and Geri Allen’s “Drummer’s Song”. The former, inspired by McCoy Tyner’s piano work in Joe Henderson’s version, flows in a peripatetic 7/8 bliss; while the latter number, a tribute to the late influential pianist and mentor who composed it, links African folk tradition with imaginative post-bop via groove.

Many moments of pleasure come out from listening to this record, in which the virtuosity of the three musicians involved is constantly put at the service of the music.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Children of Flint ► 02 - Combat Breathing ► 08 - Uneasy

Vijay Iyer / Craig Taborn - The Transitory Poems

March 12, 2019

Label: ECM Records, 2019

Personnel - Vijay Iyer: piano; Craig Taborn: piano.

Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn are two like-minded improvisers that consistently venture off the rails of traditional piano playing, embracing polyrhythmic mutations, effusive lines that speed up into full-flight fancy, and reciprocal textural work that make them distinct architects of unprecedented free jazz sceneries.

They first played together in the early 2000’s, when hired by Roscoe Mitchell to take part of his nine-piece ensemble Note Factory. Now, as a duo, they bring out The Transitory Poems, a thrilling double-piano improvisation recorded live in Budapest, and whose title was excerpted from an interview given by the late pianist Cecil Taylor.

On the opening tune, “Life Line”, they ruminatively pursue an identical idea that almost shapes like a scale. Single-note lines set against dark voicings are later confronted with other bouncy counter-voicings emitted on higher registers. The piece goes through happy stages of modern classical music and boogie-woogie, takes the form of reflective and dreamy meditations, and evokes epic intonations over a simple pedal. It’s like living in a lucid state of temporary confusion, where we know that every musical puzzle will be solved.

Dedicated to painter Jack Whitten, “Sensorium” hangs on a congested interpolation of phrases before ending peacefully, shrouded in neoclassical streams of intuition.

“Kairós” is initially sketched with silences and short melodic manifestations that let radiant glimpses of light in. This sort of babbling exercise expands into a smart collection of sounds loaded with left-hand rhythmic jabs and other accentuations. Expect a hallucinating folk dance to finish. “Shake Down” is also structured with celebratory folk passages, centering in a rhythmic idea apt for mercurial variations. At a particular time, bass notes quiver as new sounds shape.

“S.H.A.R.D.S.” and “Clear Monolith” are definitely among my favorite pieces. The former employs a jazz-centered melodic-harmonic foil pushed forward in its last section by an electro-rock pulse, while the latter, dedicated to the great pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, is a staccato-infused impromptu turned avant epic. One can sense strong winds coming from the Far East and a spiritual current running through our bodies.

“Meshwork”, the record’s final track, is externalized with bustling jolts of energy, culminating in a slower version of Geri Allen’s “When Kabuya Dances”, here tackled with deep sentiment.

Boasting a phenomenal structural discernment, Iyer and Taborn do wonders with their agile fingers, merging their sounds to form a compact and unique whole. The world trusts these top-tier creative minds to keep shaking and amazing the modern music scene.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Kairós ► 04 - S.H.A.R.D.S. ► 06 - Clear Monolith

Vijay Iyer Sextet - Far From Over

August 21, 2017

Label/Year: ECM, 2017

Lineup - Vijay Iyer: piano; Graham Haynes - trumpet, cornet; Steve Lehman: alto saxophone; Mark Shim: tenor saxophone; Stephan Crump: bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums.

Vijay Iyer is a tour-de-force pianist, improviser, and composer whose innovative concepts about music got him a wide legion of jazz fans.

To materialize the ten new original compositions included on Far From Over, his fifth ECM album, he opted to trust his recurrent rhythmic partners Stephan Crump and Tyshawn Sorey, respectively bassist and drummer, and enlisted the resourceful saxophonists Steve Lehman and Mark Shim, as well as the trumpeter Graham Haynes for a spectacular frontline.

The introductory section of “Poles” is launched with solo piano, to which bass and drums join before the luxuriant entrance of the reedists, who infuse striking counterpoint to the already bombastic groovy flow. Iyer’s incisive comping and rhythmical expression work in synergistic communion with Crump and Sorey, who respond with sturdiness to Lehman’s pungent language full of steep accentuations. In opposition to the altoist, Haynes, less adrenalized and more embraceable, contemplates with pleasure first and then explores before wrapping up.

Both the grandiose title track and the pushful “Good On the Ground” gallop energetically by employing vigorous rhythms. While the former, dishing out majestic polyphonies over a beautiful textural matrix, gives the opportunity to the horn players to shine individually and collectively, the latter, seems to have been made for an action movie with heart and bravery as key factors. It eventually glides into jazzy ground to sustain Shim’s infectious phrasing, Iyer’s extemporaneous runs and mordacious note aggregations, and Sorey’s powerful rhythmic cramps.

A fluid post-bop interpretation suffused with an impeccable rhythmic sense defines “Down to the Wire”, which features Shim’s dark timbre and impressive power of argumentation. Crump and Sorey, always working side by side for a steadfast navigation, weave a ductile layer that serves Iyer’s flexible ideas. Eloquent and adjustable, the pianist excels in his vibrant attacks.

Airing danceable and unambiguous vibes, “Into Action” serves as a vehicle for Haynes and the bandleader extemporize their creative thoughts. Even if we find some rhythmic connotations with “Nope”, an urban jazz-funk piece where Iyer adventures himself on the Fender Rhodes, this tune stands on a completely different shelf.

Quieter moods may be enjoyed not only on “For Amiri Baraka”, a poetic stance that expands harmonically in a classic trio format, but also on “Wake”, whose innocuous movements convey the lethargy of awakening from a heavy sleep, and “Threnody”, where the initial cerebral serenity is shaken by Lehman’s cutting-edge expansiveness.

Far From Over propagates revolutionary sound waves with the visceral earnestness that has been always associated with the pianist’s work along all these years. Vijay Iyer's compositional style translates into a vortex of possibilities in terms of rhythmic intensity, challenging time signatures, and interactive action, which are all unmistakable features of this authentic and consummate jazz artist.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Poles ► 02 - Far From Over ► 05 - Down To The Wire

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith - A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke

August 8, 2016

Vijay Iyer: piano, Fender Rhodes, electronics; Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet.

When the highly sensitive chords and textures created by the pianist Vijay Iyer meet the pungent trumpet melodies of Wadada Leo Smith, there are uncanny sensations floating in the air.
“Passage” displays a melodic cry over a dramatic foundation that inhabits between the beautiful and the dark.
In “All Becomes Alive”, Iyer makes use of electronic components, introducing a 2-note bass ostinato. In turn, Smith exposes his impressive technique through exquisite and precise melodic phrases. This song becomes enchantingly percussive in its final section.
Mysterious tones created by Iyer involve “The Empty Mind Receives”, where Smith uses a trumpet mute to express himself slowly and clearly.
“Labyrinths” is a spontaneous avant-garde incursion that makes justice to its title, entangling us in grandiose piano/trumpet explorations.
Spaceships, planets, and distant galaxies came to my mind in “A Divine Courage”, whose ominous vibes in the background give place to a ravishing cinematic atmosphere.
“Notes on Water”, despite the tranquilizing start and Iyer’s residual accompaniment on Fender Rhodes, evolves into a mesmerizing crescendo where Smith’s attacks can be compared to tumults of temper and emotion.
In this haunting achievement, minimalism and virtuosity are deeply interconnected.

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Passage ► 02 – All Becomes Alive ► 04 – Labyrinths