Vijay Iyer - Post-modern Meltdown
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Pianist Vijay Iyer cuts a singular presence on the American jazz scene. With a cerebral, but accessible post-modern style, he has made his presence felt with a run of albums featuring his own cast of collaborators. Best known for his work with altoist Rudresh Mahanthappa and Mike Ladd he won Jazzwise album of the year in 2004 with In What Language? and since then has continued to craft a singular style that makes him stand out on the sometimes hidebound American scene. Kevin Le Gendre talks to Vijay ahead of the release of his latest albums Tragicomic and Door with Fieldwork and his London Jazz Festival appearance later in the year.
Either elder statesmen or very successful young Turks in jazz survive by leading just one band these days. In 2008 the bulk of improvising musicians are members of groups other than the one that bears their name. They may also undertake extensive session work in pop, classical or world music.
Obvious examples of this model are David Binney, Ron Blake and Seb Rochford, all very active players who appear in such a wide variety of contexts that they would spring a surprise if they didn’t periodically turn up in yet another new venture.
New York-based pianist Vijay Iyer is similarly inclined. His current activities include his own quartet, a duo with alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa known as Raw Materials and Fieldwork, a collective in which Iyer, alto saxophonist Steve Lehman and drummer Tyshawn Sorey are all “composer-members.”
There is also a joint project with spoken word artist Mike Ladd and a new group, Tirtha that finds Iyer in the company of guitarist Prasanna and tabla player Nitin Mitta. Last year the pianist also made his debut as a producer, helming The Chicago Project, the excellent debut by alto saxophonist Matana Roberts.
A cursory glance at the highlights of some of the recordings of the aforesaid ensembles from the last decade – the quartet’s Panoptic Modes, Blood Sutra and Re-Imagining; Fieldwork’s Your Life Flashes and Simulated Progress; Iyer-Ladd’s In What Language? and Still Life With Commentator – shows that Iyer has found creative spice within the variety in his life. One might nonetheless wonder whether this is a demanding existence.
“It is,” the 37 year-old replies on the phone from his home in Brooklyn, New York. “I guess the thing is that some of these projects, once they’re up and running, we can go do a show and we might need a little bit of fine tuning and rehearsal but it’s not like we have to create from scratch every time.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #123 to read the full feature and receive a Free CD Subscribe Here ...