"From Duke Ellington and John Coltrane to Henry Threadgill and John Zorn, jazz musicians have long flirted with Eastern influences. Yet these have been largely casual encounters, prompted by a desire to widen jazz's palette, rather than systematic attempts at fusion. The latest seekers of Afro-Asian synthesis are different. They are Asian-American jazz musicians, passionate about jazz but eager to affirm their ancestral identity. Their body of work has grown to several dozen records, and the larger culture is starting to take notice.
Asian-American jazz ranges from [Jon] Jang's interpretations of classical Chinese songs to the experimentalisms of [Fred] Ho and [Jason] Hwang to Vijay Iyer's bracingly expressionist jazz...
For Mr. Hwang, 43, and Mr. Iyer, 26, combining Asian music and jazz is an almost subliminal process... "I've lived my own version of what Indian culture means," he says. "I refuse to dress up contemporary ideas in bangles and bindis." There is nothing antiquarian about Mr. Iyer... Full of pulsating blues, Mr. Iyer's own recordings suggest an ardent student of late-60's jazz -- which, in fact, he is. But on closer examination the rhythmic cycles of the South Indian music he absorbed as a child begin to appear. Mr. Iyer, who sees "the focus on rhythmic detail and improvisation" as a bridge between jazz and South Indian music, often builds suspense around a rhythmic cadence known as a tihai. (His new recording for octet, "Architextures," introduces a young Indian-American alto saxophonist, Rudresh Mahanthappa...)
-- Adam Shatz, The New York Times
"... Armed with one of the most creative and compelling musical imaginations on the Bay Area's new jazz scene, as well as a piano technique that allows him to realize his concepts with power and grace..." -- Derk Richardson, The East Bay Express
"... one of the finest young musicians working in the Bay Area ... Iyer is an inventive, challenging musician who manages to be thoughtful and soulful at the same time."
-- J. H. Tompkins, San Francisco Bay Guardian
1996 San Francisco Bay Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery ("Goldie") award citation
September 18, 1996
The stories of sound
MUSIC IN THE Bay Area is happening these days like it hasn't since the East Bay's hip-hop scene exploded in the mid-'80s. It's a constantly mutating world of jazz, techno, ambient, and improvisational experimentation, fueled by the creative energy and determination of young players like pianist-bandleader-composer Vijay Iyer.Iyer has played and recorded with a wide range of musicians: he leads the Vijay Iyer Trio, Spirit Complex, and Poisonous Prophets; and he's worked with people such as M-Base leader Steve Coleman, iconoclastic hip-hop group Midnight Voices, trombonist George Lewis, and saxophonist Francis Wong.
While the young jazz players who have flourished in SoMa clubs during recent years have received more attention, Iyer, the son of South Indian immigrants, has taken the challenge of plowing new musical ground. As part of a generation of Indian Americans now growing into adulthood, Iyer is among those beginning to explore issues of social, political, and cultural identity.
"In South Indian music, like African music, the role of personal narrative is central," he says. "The sound becomes the carrier for the identity."
Iyer delineated his musical vision in the notes to his album Memorophilia, released last fall on Asian Improv Records: "I found myself most attracted to music that lay outside of conventional teachings: Ellington, Monk, Cecil Taylor.... To my ears, these artists possess a certain 'cry.' "
In a recent interview he elaborated on the point: "To me it is what this music is finally about: radical expressions of alternative identity, challenges to mainstream aesthetics, and expression of the collective voices of an oppressed group."
Memorophilia presents this challenge with a rich, warm, and compelling collection of songs. Iyer's playing manages to be understated and explosive at the same time -- a sonic tapestry that is full of invention and surprise.
Raised in Rochester, N.Y., Iyer was trained as a classical violinist but also played the piano while growing up. He went to Yale to study math and physics, and though his affinity with jazz blossomed in New Haven, he came to UC Berkeley after graduation to pursue doctoral studies in physics.
After receiving his masters, Iyer became "kind of disillusioned with physics academia, and I saw the musical part of my life at odds with the physics part of it. I couldn't devote enough time to either to be satisfied, and music offered me much more immediate gratification."
The decision meant two things: Iyer switched to an interdisciplinary graduate program he created that combines music, musicology, computer science, and cognitive science. And it meant that he was in a position to concentrate on his music.
The results are obvious. As Iyer puts it, "Things are just rolling along. I feel like I'm growing and playing with some amazing people."
-- J. H. Tompkins, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Option magazine's F.Y.I.
November-December 1996
Vijay Iyer
"All the elements in my music come from life experience," says pianist Vijay Iyer, whose parents emigrated from the south of India to the U.S. in the 1960s. Sitting at a battered upright in his small Berkeley apartment, Iyer demonstrates with an unlikely example -- a spare, captivating version of Thelonious Monk's standard, "Round Midnight.""Monk's playing and his composition is how I learned this kind of music," Iyer says when the piece is finished. "The focus on rhythm, that's how I relate to South Indian music, although how this influence shapes my music is not immediately apparent to most people."
Iyer's 1995 album Memorophilia (AsianImprov) is an impressive, sometimes stunning debut that includes work with a trio, a quintet and a quartet called the Poisonous Prophets, featuring electric guitar and bass. (Iyer recently finished the follow-up, Architextures, but is still looking for a label.) And though he regularly performs with a diverse cast of musicians -- from saxophonist Steve Coleman to the hip-hop group Midnight Voices -- Iyer's playing is always marked by an acute sensitivity to his environment and a style that is understated but powerful.
On "Peripatetics," one of Memorophilia's strongest original compositions, raw, dissonant clusters give way to swinging bursts of notes up and down the keyboard before the piece settles into thick, angular chords. Despite near-constant changes in style, tempo and key, "Peripatetics" -- like all Iyer's work -- contains a deeply personal quality that he says links him to the tradition of jazz.
"In South Asian music, like African music, the role of personal narrative in music is important," he says. "The improviser has a sound, which is more than just the timbre -- it's the whole approach to making music. I'm working in this music which is basically an African-American form, but it's one that's very accomodating. It lets you be yourself."
-- J. H. Tompkins, Option
"I'd heard Vijay with his trio a few times locally... and loved it. He's got a dark, thoughtful, quirky sound. Sounds to me like 1/3 Monk, 1/3 McCoy, 1/3 all new. I picked up 'Memorophilia' at the CD release party here... Great stuff... The biggest surprise to me was the non-trio tracks. There's good stuff from Steve Coleman, George Lewis, Kash Killion and more, in a few interesting settings... The liner notes are almost as good as the music... [He] has a great deal of respect and admiration for an impressive number of influences... Buy. Listen. Read. Repeat." From Internet music enthusiasts
-- Charles Lawrence, posting to rec.music.bluenote
"Allow me to say that Vijay's album is IMO excellent -- fine playing, and compositions that are rather more than just blowing heads. All the Andrew Hill fans here might especially want to try it on, as Vijay is one of comparatively few pianists I've heard with a strong & honest Hill influence... The disc also offers a rare glimpse of new trombone by George Lewis in an open-jazz framework... Vijay is a talented cat who deserves wide availability, and has done a lot for the SF/Berkeley new music scene."
-- P. Murphy, also on rec.music.bluenote
"Many of you have already heard 'Off the Top' which is on the rmb compilation and the other track with Coleman works just as well. The trio tracks are generally quiet and introspective and the [Poisonous Prophets] track is also excellent with some nice guitar work from Liberty Ellman. But, for me, the prize tracks are the quintet tracks which are delightfully intricate and packed with emotion. ... Very recommended."
-- Walt Davis, also on rec.music.bluenote
"Vijay Iyer is a hip, young, bay area pianist. His style is exciting, invigorating and fresh... You can hear many influences in his music such as Geri Allen or McCoy Tyner ... but Vijay's no copycat; he sucks in his influences and spreads them into his own sound."
-- Cathy Austin, "Nubian Roots," KZSU Stanford