Vijay Iyer live at 32nd Leverkusener Jazztage 2011

Vijay Iyer, piano
recorded live at Forum, Leverkusen, November 6, 2011

1. One For Blunt
2. Imagine

About Vijay´s album "Solo" I wrote earlier on this blog. Accelerando is the follow-up to the Vijay Iyer Trio's Grammy-nominated Historicity – voted the No. 1 jazz album of 2009 around the world, including in the Downbeat critics' poll and by The New York Times
Vijay Iyer's career has moved on an ever-accelerating arc over the past decade and a half, with the Indian-American artist earning a slew of international honors for his intrepid, multi-hued vision of 21st-century music. The latest chapter of this compelling story in contemporary jazz comes with the Vijay Iyer Trio's Accelerando, an album driven by the visceral, universal, intoxicating experience of rhythm. Accelerando sees Iyer and his telepathic trio mates – bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore – go both deep and wide. They light up material that ranges from a brace of bold Iyer originals and pieces by great jazz composers (Duke Ellington, Herbie Nichols, Henry Threadgill) to surprising interpretations of vintage and recent pop and funk tunes (Michael Jackson, Heatwave, Flying Lotus). Absorbing and infectious, this is jazz about not only the mind but the body.

Tribute to Esbjörn Svensson live at JazzBaltica 2011

1. Ballad For E (Magnus Öström)
2. Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny)
Pat Metheny, gt
Dan Berglund, b
Magnus Öström, dr

3. From Gagarin's Point Of View (Esbjörn Svensson)
Pat Metheny, gt
Dan Berglund, b
Magnus Öström, dr
Nils Landgren, tb

4. Dodge The Dodo (Esbjörn Svensson)

Pat Metheny, gt
Dan Berglund, b
Magnus Öström, dr
Nils Landgren, tb
Leszek Mozdzer, p
Lars Danielsson, cello

5. Pavane. Thoughts Of A Septuagenarian (Esbjörn Svensson)
Yaron Herman, p
Lars Danielsson, cello

6. Chopin (Leszek Mozdzer)
Leszek Mozdzer, piano

7. Epistrophy (Thelonious Monk)
8. Remembrance (Vijay Iyer)
Vijay Iyer, piano

9. Don't Tell Me How The Story Goes (Kris Kristofferson)
Nils Landgren, tb
Michael Wollny, p

10. Believe, Beleft, Below (Esbjörn Svensson)
Viktoria Tolstoy, voc
Pat Metheny, gt
Dan Berglund, b
Magnus Öström, dr
Michael Wollny, p

11. Shining On You (Esbjörn Svensson)

Viktoria Tolstoy, voc
Pat Metheny, gt
Dan Berglund, b
Magnus Öström, dr
Nils Landgren, tb
Michael Wollny, p
Lars Danielsson, cello

12. The Goldhearted Miner (Esbjörn Svensson)
Yaron Herman, p
Lars Danielsson, cello

Since Esbjörn Svensson’s untimely death in 2008 his childhood friend the distinctive drum ’n’ bass-influenced drummer in EST Magnus Öström has taken time to adjust to his sense of loss following the devastating death of Svensson as a result of a scuba diving accident.
Last year Dan Berglund, EST’s bassist, debuted Tonbruket, a prog rock-tinged group that successfully toured its debut album in the UK. Like Berglund Öström has paid tribute to their great friend on the album which features a new grouping of Stockholm musicians, with Andreas Hourdakis coming in on guitar; Gustaf Karlöf, piano and Thobias Gabrielson (electric bass) to join Öström.
The album titled Thread of Life was recorded in Magnus’ favourite studio, Atlantis in Stockholm, with all of the 10 songs written by the drummer. Pat Metheny, who famously performed on a staggering version of ‘Dodge The Dodo’ with EST at the JazzBaltica festival in Germany in 2003, got close to the band over the years and was greatly affected by Esbjörn’s death. He and Berglund join on the poignant sixth track ‘Ballad For E’ recorded at Avatar in New York at the end of last year.

Vijay Iyer Trio 'Tirtha' live at Jazzclub Unterfahrt München 2011

Photo © Alan Nahigian 
 
Vijay Iyer - Piano
Prasanna - Guitar
Nitin Mitta - Tabla
recorded live at Jazzclub Unterfahrt München, April 13, 2011

1. Far From Over (Iyer)
2. Tirtha (Iyer)
3. Abundance (Iyer)
4. Tribal Wisdom (Prasanna)
5. Gauntlet (Iyer)
6. Introduction
7. Duality (Iyer)
8. Falsehood (Prasanna)
9. Polytheism (Prasanna)
10. Remembrance (Iyer)
11. Entropy and Time (Prasanna)
12. Jog (Mitta)

The Sanskrit word tīrtha (THEER-tha) literally means a ford, or a shallow place in a river that can be easily crossed over. Within a spiritual context, tirtha denotes a holy place near a body of water - somewhere where everyday struggles fall away, and where one passes easily into a deeper and more profound state of being. Aptly, Tirtha is now also the name of a phenomenal trio featuring three powerhouse musicians who at once honor and traverse the streams of tradition. It is also the name of their exciting new album on ACT.
Individually, Indian-American pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, Chennai (formerly Madras)-born guitarist-composer Prasanna, and Hyderabad native and tabla player Nitin Mitta are already highly accomplished artists who shift easily among multiple musical languages. Together, they have achieved a fully realized, deeply thoughtful, and truly innovative collaboration. Combining the elemental directness of rock, the chamber-like intimacy of raga, and bebop’s hard, angular drive, Tirtha achieves a profound interplay of melody and rhythm that characterizes the best jazz.
In his album notes, the award-winning Iyer describes the group’s genesis: “Tirtha (the band) formed in response to an invitation. In 2007 I was asked to put together a concert celebrating 60 years of Indian independence. Normally I’ve steered clear of fusion experiments that attempt to mix styles - to “create something,” as John Coltrane famously admonished, “more with labels, you see, than true evolution.” For this event I hoped to avoid those pitfalls, and offer something personal.
“I invited along Prasanna and Nitin Mitta, two outstanding musicians from India who have settled in the States. None of us had collaborated previously, but at our first rehearsal we felt a jolt of recognition. There was no question of “fusion,” no compromise, no attempt to sound more or less “Indian”; just a fluid musical conversation among three individuals, an atmosphere of camaraderie, a sense of beginning.”

Vijay Iyer Piano Solo live in Bonn 2010

Vijay Iyer, Piano
recorded live at Beethovenhaus Bonn, December 9, 2010

1.  One For Blount (Vijay Iyer)
2.  Autoscopy (Vijay Iyer)
3.  Human Nature/Black And Tan Fantasy (J. Bettis, S. Porcaro/ Duke Ellington, Bubber Miley)
4. Patterns (Vijay Iyer)
5. Imagine (John Lennon)

Vijay Iyer is the face of modern jazz. Hardly any other musician of this genre has been more acclaimed in the media recently, or received more important prizes, than the 38-year-old.
The most surprising thing about this unrivalled success story is that Iyer didn’t make any compromises along the way. The New York pianist and composer concentrates fully on his own musical value system, and any rapprochement to pop or world music appears utterly on his own specific terms. The music of this autodidact pianist-composer has an unrivalled complexity and distinctiveness about it. It baffles, captivates and entices with its highly rigorous yet also seemingly effortless incorporation of very different influences into its sound world, This achievement also reveals a man of great musical wisdom, His academic background does not yield overly scholastic-sounding music; rather, his work displays great breadth, depth, and feeling.


This is impressively revealed anew in his second ACT album, simply called “Solo”, with which Iyer now enters the supreme discipline of jazz piano. It is his first solo album and, fittingly, he dedicates himself to serious reflection. After contemplating temporal and cultural contexts with “Historicity”, with “Solo” he now focuses on the self. “Autoscopy refers to a certain type of ’out-of-body experience’ in which you perceive your actions from outside of (usually above) your body. Playing music occasionally offers that experience. In a different sense, so does making a solo album.” Gesture, character, and disposition come together in this impression of one’s own actions (Iyer uses the term “Hexis,” which means disposition or stance) which conveys, visibly and audibly, the intent which precedes the action.
The disposition, Iyer’s expression, can not only be heard on every piece on the album but, in a magical way, can also be felt. As on “Historicity”, his playing is permeated by the jazz tradition, the technique, disposition and colours as purported beyond the musical notes by Thelonious Monk, Andrew Hill, Randy Weston, Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra (who Iyer also names in his liner notes). Yet these carefully observed influences are only the palette from which Iyer mixes his own new colours. He succeeds in doing this in a fascinating way right at the beginning – in an acknowledgement of one of his firt pop influences, “Human Nature”, the Michael Jackson song composed by Steve Porcaro, is harmonically and rhythmically reinterpreted by Iyer. Two Ellington adaptations are also phenomenal: Iyer revives “Black and Tan Fantasy” from the early Cotton Club period with Bubber Miley’s typical jungle sound almost in the original form in stride and ragtime guise before catapulting it to the modern day. In contrast, the late work “Fleurette Africaine”, provides the dazzling and historic key material for a musical study on origin, foreignness and identity, about mourning and pride – topics which Vijay Iyer, who is of Indian descent, has often examined.

Vijay Iyer Trio live at Jazzfest Berlin 2009 - UPDATE!!!!

Photo of Vijay Iyer © by Prashant Bhargava

Vijay Iyer · piano
Stephan Crump · bass
Justin Brown · drums

recorded live at Jazzclub Quasimodo, Berlin, November 5, 2009

1. Alaska/ Historicity
2. Inertia
3. Big brother
4. Dogon A.D.
5. Somewhere
6. Smoke Stack
7. Helix
8. Cardio
9. Questions Of Agency
10. Desiring
11. Trident
12. Our Lives

“By now, there can be no doubt that pianist-composer Iyer stands among the most daringly original jazz artists of the under-40 generation,” writes Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune. The American-born son of Indian immigrants, Vijay Iyer is a self-taught creative musician grounded in American jazz and popular forms, and drawing from a wide range of Western and non-Western traditions. He was described by The Village Voice as “the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years,” by The New Yorker as one of “today's most important pianists... extravagantly gifted,” and by the L.A. Weekly as “a boundless and deeply important young star.” In the recent International Critics' Poll of the Downbeat Magazine Vijay Iyer is the winner in the category “Rising Star Pianist”, his trio was honoured #2 in the category “Rising Star Jazz Group” and in the categories “Rising Star Jazz Artist” and “Rising Star Composer” Vijay reached a notable third place.
The trio´s latest album "Historicity" was released this fall on ACT Music.