Vijay Iyer has a florid take on how he composes jazz. The MacArthur Grant holder and virtuosic piano player has had collaborations across the globe. Improvisational music is a part of his bloodstream, his synapses are strung together in black and white. His latest album is a collaboration of what we hope becomes a trio. With Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey, this album is called Compassion.
An instrumental album can have a thematic canvas, but song names hardly tend to matter. However, listeners who have obsessed over Chick Correa’s Return to Forever know that jazz can appeal to anyone who enjoys music. Vijay Iyer is an idiosyncratic thinker like that, his approach is to extrude the feel in how many ever dimensions he can. Linda May Han Oh has created some memorable bass structures for the strongest of aural skyscrapers, and this is evident in Compassion.
Tyshawn Sorey is another multi-instrumentalist many fans of jazz know about. A prolific drummer and pianist, he is also an improvisational music professor. Creating a strong rapport with Vijay Iyer, there is a palpable chemistry in this particular trio that exudes compassion. Perhaps, just listening to it in a way will process a receding pulse.
Instrumental reverence & improvisation
The prelude is a mirage of notes, all layered over one other to provide that dense atmosphere Vijay Iyer can manifest so easily. The dramatic notes in the lower register are just the kind of beginning you need to hear, to know an introduction. The flurry of notes that fall is like experiencing your first snow. It just becomes another spectacle to behold from here.
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Arch shows you how easily he can improvise over a loose construct. You immediately hook to this element, and you can see the different angles he views this image from. Whatever feeble knowledge in jazz I do have, is washed down the river with this exciting cascade. All there is to do is sit back and enjoy virtuosic excellence. The skill of the trio is without question, Linda May Han Oh has some extremely lucid and balanced bass leads as well. There is a lighter footprint that Tyshawn Sorey keeps on a song like this. It is an exchange of dialogues, styles and sounds. The song comes together like a well experimented cocktail.
The richer timbres in Overjoyed are what give the song the name. It is undeniably the choice of notes that lead to this elation. Vijay Iyer is experiencing an in-situ nirvana on the keys, and you can feel it in every phrase. The way the song paces itself is a treat, the organic build keeping you hooked till the last second.
Vijay Iyer: A bridge to the new forms of jazz
Vijay was last seen in his project called Love in Exile, including artists like Arooj Aftab and Shahzad Ismaily. Known for expanding his horizons while collaborating, the compositions reflect this new chemistry, time after time. While collaborating with ECM records for his releases, they have found a perfect balance of production and leeway for an electric performer like Iyer.
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This buzzing energy is what is felt in Maelstrom as well. It is a quick-paced number, a rising crest from the opening single. You can hear it all happen in real time, Tyshawn’s drum parts especially accelerating to the demanding pace of the song. The trio decide to slow it down after this with Prelude:Orison. You can hear it as a monologue, with a different shift in moods-in defiance to adhering to the pace while in flow. It contributes to the subliminal storytelling that Vijay Iyer does so effectively with his music.
They speed back into warm jazz tempo with Tempest. Dense and textural, this song has space for improvisation as well as targeted lines that show you the mastery shared between the three. Panegyric eases you back into that state of mind where time seems to settle. Vijay Iyer effectively dips into thoughts with relevance-one foot in traditional jazz and the other half becoming an extension of his personality. I would be remiss to say that the trio hasn’t given some of their best performances ever in this album.
Collaborations leading to new ideas
In albums that are a war of instruments, this seems to be one ecosystem. It melds the edges, especially where it matters, to show us what contemporary jazz feels and sounds like. It is a future that is comfortable, nuanced, and yet looks at the ghosts of the past with reverence.
Vijay Iyer will continue to innovate, with this same fervor. There are elements of his music that can’t be taught, but are parts of his personality. Tyshawn Sorey and Linda May Han Oh have been the perfect addendums for this mixture. You can listen to their explorative jazz album and wait for Vijay Iyer to be on tour for this release. Till then, delve into the compassion of this one!:
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
