June 23, 2010
Vijay was just named 2010 MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR in the Jazz Journalists Association Annual Jazz Awards! Read more about the award, see lists of previous winners, and watch the ceremony.
Vijay's newest recording, titled Solo, will be released at the end of August on ACT Music. It is his first solo piano album. Like last year's Historicity, the new album cover features a sculpture by the contemporary artist Anish Kapoor. See the tracklist and listen to a song from the album on NPR Music.
April 8th, 2010
Vijay has had a busy 2010 so far. He has toured the US and Europe with the Vijay Iyer Trio, the duo Raw Materials and the collective Fieldwork; completed an art installation with filmmaker Bill Morrison at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia; performed two-piano duets with Craig Taborn at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study; and unveiled Holding it Down, a collaboration-in-progress with poet-performer Mike Ladd about the dreams of young American veterans from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The Vijay Iyer Trio has just been named "best ensemble (international)" in the ECHO Jazz Awards, the German equivalent of the Grammys, and will accept the award in a televised ceremony in Germany on May 5.
Teza, the celebrated film by Haile Gerima with an award-winning score by Vijay Iyer and Jorga Mesfin, is enjoying a successful New York run. Don't miss it!
Visit the redesigned shows page for a comprehensive list of Vijay's upcoming performances.
December 29th, 2009
A crowning year-end accolade: Historicity tops the 2009 Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll, voted Jazz Album of the Year in a survey of nearly a hundred critics.The Chicago Tribune chooses 2008's Tragicomic as one of the most significant cultural events of the decade!
Read a massive interview and feature article about Vijay on Allaboutjazz.com, or a substantial French-language portrait on CitizenJazz.com.
December 20th, 2009
Year-end acclaim for Historicity by the Vijay Iyer Trio:#1 Jazz/Pop Album of the Year - The New York Times
#1 Jazz Album of the Year - National Public Radio, U.S.A.
#1 Jazz Album of the Year - Los Angeles Times
#1 Innovative Jazz Release of 2009 - Chicago Tribune
#1 Best Jazz of 2009 - PopMatters.com
#2 Jazz Album of the Year - JazzTimes Poll (40 critics voting)
"Presto! Here is the great new jazz piano trio." - The New York Times
"Truly astonishing... they make challenging music sound immediately enjoyable. " - National Public Radio
"A jewel... 9 out of 10" - PopMatters.com
"Historicity hangs together beautifully: it's one of 2009's gems." - iTunes Review
"exquisitely tasteful and entirely listenable... Iyer and his band maintain both a perfect tension and an intense perfection." - Toronto EYE Weekly
"an intense, breathe-as-one trio, which, even in the most dramatic, rhythmically complex interaction, can groove with visceral power" - Irish Times
"an incredible CD" - All Music Guide
"hugely enjoyable and thoroughly accessible... a galvanizing album" - AllAboutJazz.com
A note from ACT's PR:
"It would be great if your fans could log on to iTunes and write a nice review for Historicity. We have found that iTunes really pays attention when a recording gets multiple high ratings/reviews in a short period. Of course we only ask that you submit a review if you have something to say about the music!"
Critics have spoken - now it's your turn!
iTunes
Amazon
Thanks for your support. Happy holidays!
December 1st, 2009
ACT releases Historicity (Bonus Track Edition) - Vijay Iyer Trio"it's always great to hear him get down to business with his trio... a lushly textured musical world... Historicity hangs together beautifully: it's one of 2009's gems." - iTunes Review
October 6th, 2009
NPR MUSIC - Exclusive First Listen: Vijay Iyer, 'Historicity'October 6, 2009 - Vijay Iyer's new album, Historicity, is the work of a piano trio playing mostly covers — a common sight in jazz. But to anyone paying attention to these sounds, it's evident that the band is taking an uncommon, even daring approach. Full Article
September 12th, 2009
NEW YORK TIMES:: IT'S HIS MOMENT: LISTEN
VIJAY IYER’S piano trio sneaked up on listeners when they weren’t really paying much attention to it. It was there in some of the best parts of Mr. Iyer’s impressive recent quartet album, “Tragicomic” (Sunnyside), that don’t include the group’s saxophonist, Rudresh Mahanthappa; it surfaced in occasional gigs or commissions over the past four years for the band’s three other musicians, the pianist Mr. Iyer, the bassist Stephan Crump and the drummer Marcus Gilmore. But “Historicity,” to be released on Oct. 13 by the German label ACT, is piano-bass-drums from beginning to end, and so it’s probably the moment to say: Presto! Here is the great new jazz piano trio. Full Article
September 6th, 2009
Vijay is featured on the cover of the September 2009 issue of the German magazine Jazz Podium.
August 23, 2009
ACT Music + Vision presents the new Vijay Iyer Trio album Historicity, out across Europe in late August-early September, and in the U.S. on October 13. Jazzwise (UK) praises "a particular resonance in the music," and Concerto (Austria) gives its highest rating of five stars. Order it now!
Vijay is featured on the cover of the September 2009 issue of the German magazine JazzThetik.
The trio recently played the famed jazz festival in Newport, Rhode Island. Their performance was covered on National Public Radio who also selected their music as one of the festival highlights.
This week a song from the album is featured on NPR's All Songs Considered.
WNYC radio hosted a debate between Vijay and Terry Teachout about Teachout's recent controversial Wall Street Journal column. Read the NEA findings and hear the debate.
May 9, 2009
Vijay has had a busy year so far, mainly with his trio with Marcus Gilmore and Stephan Crump. They toured Europe in February, played numerous US dates in the winter and spring, and recorded a new album titled Historicity. Vijay has just signed to the German label ACT Music, who will release the album on CD and LP in late August.
You can preview three tracks from the new album on Vijay's myspace. You can also hear the trio captured live in Amsterdam for Dutch Radio (requires appropriate media player).
Vijay also recently created some music for the cable sports channel ESPN, in a quintet with Mark Shim, Ambrose Akinmusire, Harish Raghavan, and Marcus Gilmore. Two of the fifteen short cues are posted on myspace.
Raw Materials, Vijay's longstanding duo collaboration with Rudresh Mahanthappa, completed their latest European tour in April.
Check out Vijay's blindfold test for the May issue of Downbeat Magazine, his "Once a Physicist" interview for Physics Today, and other recent press.
More to come soon!
December 4, 2008
Vijay was profiled in the November 2008 issue of the influential French magazine Jazzman, and in the same issue Tragicomic received their highest rating of "Choc!" (5 Stars). Further accolades for Tragicomic have just arrived in Jazzman's December issue, in the form of a "Choc de l'Année", their award for the best albums of 2008.Vijay and Jorga Mesfin shared the award for Best Original Score for Haile Gerima's film Teza at the Carthage International Film Festival, where the film took several top honors. The film had its world premiere in September at the Venice Film Festival, where it received the Special Jury Prize and the award for Best Screenplay.
November 10, 2008
THE DOZENS: VIJAY IYER SURVEYS THE MUSIC OF ANDREW HILLIn 1995, Vijay Iyer, then a 24-year-old Berkeley PhD candidate in Physics with an interest in the neurobiology of musical cognition, who was moonlighting as a gigging jazz pianist in the Bay Area, met educator/trombonist/computer installation artist George Lewis. “George set forth the idea of framing improvisation itself as a kind of inquiry, or critique or intellectual discourse, without losing the soul or heart of the music,” Iyer once recalled. Download Article
September 3, 2008
Vijay is on the cover of the September issue of the British magazine Jazzwise, with a glowing feature article written by Kevin LeGendre.
He also just debuted his exciting new quintet featuring Prasanna, Ambrose Akinmusire, Stephan Crump, and Marcus Gilmore in New York and at the Chicago Jazz Festival. Watch for more from this band in 2009!
July 21, 2008
Don't miss the Vijay Iyer Quartet at NYC's Jazz Standard July 31-Aug 3!learn more
June 06, 2008
Vijay is on the cover of the July issue of DownBeat Magazine along with fellow pianist-composers Jason Moran and Matthew Shipp. The cover story is a round-table interview conducted by Ted Panken: "a candid conversation on race, techology, education and the quest to create your own musical universe."
May 30, 2008
The New York collective trio known as FIELDWORK (Vijay Iyer, piano & compositions; Steve Lehman, saxophone & compositions; Tyshawn Sorey, drums and compositions) will perform their original music this Saturday, May 31 at 7:30pm (one set only) at Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Avenue @ Astor Place, NYC.The concert celebrates the release of their new album, Door, out now on Pi Recordings.
Praise for Door:
- "[T]he future of New York Jazz....Incredible music for the brave of heart and mind." - Yahoo Music
- "[A] phenomenal concept brought fully to fruition by these incredible, challenging, forward thinking musicians." - All Music Guide
- "staggeringly good" - emusic.com
Preview entire album
Watch a video of Fieldwork performing live
Read more about Door
Don't miss this show! Click here for more info and tickets.
May 20, 2008
Innerviews.com The global jazz envoy on infusing instrumentals with social commentaryAcclaimed pianist, composer, and sonic conceptualist Vijay Iyer discusses how his two new releases, Tragicomic and Door, reflect the mercurial world around him. Iyer also provides a revealing glimpse into his creative process and his unquenchable thirst for fresh perspectives. Read Full Article
May 7, 2008
Welcome to my new site.April 20, 2008
Vijay Iyer's new release "Tragicomic" is out now.Click to listen to and purchase new album.
August 1, 2007
Vijay has been named the #1 Rising Star Jazz Artist and #1 Rising Star Composer in the 2007 Downbeat MagazineInternational Critics Poll! This is the second year in a row that he has topped both of those categories. Here are some trio videos with Vijay, Stephan Crump, and Marcus Gilmore, taped live at The Stone, 19 Jan 2007.Vijay has just been added to the jazz faculty at NYU and to the distinguished roster of Steinway artists.
select album for more info.
