RG-02 Vijay Iyer MEMOROPHILIA
Acclaimed 24-year-old Indian-American musician VIJAY IYER has been living
and working in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area fornearly four years.
An extremely gifted, unique innovator in contemporary jazz and creative
music, Iyer is a forceful and rhythmic pianist in the Duke Ellington-Thelonious
Monk-Cecil Taylor lineage, who consults his own south Indian heritage for
inspiration. He has gained recognition from audiences, musicians, and critics
alike as a world-class artist and an important force on the Bay Area music
scene.
The world-renowned alto saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman has drafted
Iyer into two of his five current projects. One of these, the ten-member
ensemble known as the Mystic Rhythm Society, recorded some live performances
in Paris in 1995. Recently released on compact disc under the title Myths,
Modes, and Means (Groovetown/BMG), the recording has received accolades
all across Europe.
Iyer has also performed in the U.S. and abroad with the great trombonist
and computer musician George Lewis. In addition, he has collaborated with
a diverse catalog of musicians, from avant-garde luminaries Cecil Taylor,
John Tchicai, and ROVA Saxophone Quartet, to cross-cultural innovators such
as Miya Masaoka and Peter Apfelbaum, to hip-hop and funk projects like Midnight
Voices.
Over the last few years, Iyer has contributed prodigiously to the field
of creative music as a leader of his own groups, playing original music
that draws from the African-American, South Indian, and West African musical
traditions. He has been featured as a leader in prominent Bay Area musical
events, including the 1993 Oakland Chinatown Street Fair, the 1995 Asian-American
Jazz Festival in San Francisco, and the 1995 Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in
Oakland.
Not a moment too soon, Iyer's music has finally been documented, and it
can be heard on the brilliant new compact disc,Memorophilia, on the Asian
Improv Records label. [Also available from Red Giant ] The album
features his three current working ensembles. The Vijay Iyer Trio (Iyer,
piano; Jeff Brock, acoustic bass; Brad Hargreaves, drums) is a tightly interacting,
dynamic unit showcasing Iyer's piano playing and his vivid, rhythmically
strong compositions. Sitting in with the trio on two of its five cuts is
contemporary saxophone genius Steve Coleman. One additional track displays
the groove-oriented fireworks of Poisonous Prophets (Iyer, piano; Liberty
Ellman, guitar; Jeff Bilmes, electric bass; Elliot Humberto Kavee, drums).
Two more pieces involve the mature improvisational artistry of Spirit Complex
(special guest George Lewis, trombone; Francis Wong, tenor saxophone; Kash
Killion, cello; Iyer, piano; Kavee, drums). Rounding out the album is a
solo piano piece that attempts to synthesize all of these musical directions.
Though stylistically diverse, the album displays a cohesiveness that comes
about through Iyer's unique pianistic voice and compositional logic.
Vijay Iyer MEMOROPHILIA
1.Relativist's Waltz
2.Stars over Mars
3.Spellbound & Sacrosanct, Cowrie Shells and the Shimmering Sea
4.March and Epilogue
5.Peripatetics
6.Algebra
7.Off the Top
8.Memorophilia
9.Segment for Sentiment #2
All compositions by Vijay Iyer (Multiplicity Music - SESAC)
- On 1, 7: The Vijay Iyer Trio (Iyer, piano; Jeff Brock, acoustic
bass; Brad Hargreaves, drums) with special guest Steve Coleman, alto saxophone.
- On 2, 3, 8: The Vijay Iyer Trio.
- On 4, 9: Spirit Complex (Iyer, piano; Francis Wong, tenor
saxophone; Kash Killion, 'cello; Elliot Humberto Kavee, drums).
- On 5: Poisonous Prophets (Iyer, piano; Liberty Ellman, guitar;
Jeff Bilmes, electric bass; Elliot Humberto Kavee, drums).
Steve Coleman appears courtesy of RCA Records.
Email Vijay Iyer
