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| 5.061 Ft
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| 1. | Human Nature
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| 2. | Epistrophy
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| 3. | Darn That Dream
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| 4. | Black & Tan Fantasy
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| 5. | Prelude: Heartpiece
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| 6. | Autoscopy
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| 7. | Patterns
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| 8. | Desiring
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| 9. | Games
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| 10. | Fleurette Africaine
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| 11. | One For Blount
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Jazz
Recorded May 16-17, 2010 and mixed May 18, 2010 at OTR studios, Belmont, California
Vijay Iyer / piano
Produced & arranged by Vijay Iyer
Co-produced by Cookie Marenco
Engineer: Cookie Marenco
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 (pronounced "VID-jay EYE-yer") 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." After the phenomenal success of The Vijay Iyer Trio's 2009 release "Historicity" - the `800-pound gorilla on year-end best-of lists' (L.A. Times), Iyer returns with Solo. The document of Iyer's continuing dialogue with history, both his own and that of the music to which he has dedicated his life, Solo encapsulates both Iyer's career and his distinctive approach to his instrument. The diversity of Iyer's experience infuses each note of Solo. The first section of the record centers on music of the past, presenting Iyer's interpretation of music from the jazz canon. In this way, the disc might be viewed as an extension of 2009's Historicity. His own compositions, dominating the album's second act, demonstrate how completely he has assimilated and brought his own vision to creative music. For Iyer, the new album embodies both departure and return. It is a monumental step forward and a defining moment in Vijay Iyer's artistic life. With this powerful, subtle homage to Monk, Ellington, Taylor, Hill, Muhal Richard Abrams and Randy Weston, Iyer joins the ranks of these and many other artists who have recorded great, enduring, original solo piano statements
"Solo" is the most striking evidence: the most exciting, pioneering and intelligent sounds to currently come from the piano keys in jazz are associated with the name Vijay Iyer.
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. Iyer graced the headlines of numerous leading specialist magazines worldwide: Downbeat in the USA, Jazzwise in England, Jazzthetik and Jazzpodium in Germany, Concerto in Austria, and Musica Jazz in Italy. His ACT debut, "Historicity" which came out in autumn 2009 - Iyer's first full album in the classic piano trio format and, at the same time, a profound redefinition of this genre - was named "Jazz Album of the Year" in the most important American daily newspapers: the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Detroit Metro Times, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as on National Public Radio and PopMatters.com. The All Music Guide described "an unbelievable CD," and it also triumphed in three important international critics polls: "Historicity" was named number one in the Downbeat poll, number two in the Jazz Times Poll after Joe Lovano, and number one in the Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll, beating Lovano and other American jazz stars such as Keith Jarrett. Recently, Iyer has also won Germany's most important music prize - the ECHO Jazz for the "best international ensemble". And finally he has received the prestigious American Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award 2010 as "Musician Of The Year".
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.
The almost rapturous, nostalgically lingering embrace of standards ("Darn That Dream" is also on the album) perfectly complement Iyer's own pieces, which are bursting with ideas and colours. Iyer's spectrum ranges from lyrical to hard-driving (particularly "One For Blount"), from minimalistic to opulent, from consonant to atonal (dominant in "Autoscopy") and all this is wondrously brought together into a harmonious relationship. "Solo" is the most striking evidence: the most exciting, pioneering and intelligent sounds to currently come from the piano keys in jazz are associated with the name Vijay Iyer
Vijay Iyer
Active Decade: '00s
Born: 1971 in NY
Genre: Jazz
Styles: World Fusion, M-Base, Progressive Jazz
Born in 1971 to parents who emigrated from India to the U.S. in the 1960s, the Bay Area-based composer and pianist Vijay Iyer led three distinct combos: Spirit Complex, the Poisonous Prophets, and the Vijay Iyer Trio. All three groups appeared on the musician's 1995 debut on Asian Improv, Memorophilia, a collection fusing jazz forms with the rhythms of South Asian music. In addition to working to create interactive software for improvised musical performance, Iyer worked frequently with alto saxophonist and M-Base pioneer Steve Coleman in his groups the Mystic Rhythm Society and the Secret Doctrine, and occasionally sat in with the Five Elements. By the time of Panoptic Modes' release in late 2001, Iyer had a working quartet with alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, bassist Stephan Crump, and drummer Derrek Phillips. Phillips gave way to Tyshawn Sorey, and the quartet released Blood Sutra in 2003. At the same time, Iyer was working with hip-hop's Mike Ladd on In What Language?, an examination of the often dehumanizing world of international travel in a post 9-11 world, also released in 2003. He continued working with Mahanthappa and Ladd, appearing on Mahanthappa's Mother Tongue in 2004 and Ladd's Negrophilia: The Album in 2005 before releasing his own Reimagining, also in 2005. He was back with Mahanthappa for 2006's Raw Materials and Ladd for 2007's Still Life with Commentator. Tragicomic appeared in 2008.
---Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide |
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