Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project is the latest album to emerge from the ongoing collaboration of Grammy-nominated pianist/composer Vijay Iyer and poet/performer/librettist/emcee Mike Ladd. Resulting from a project over three years in the making, the new release focuses on veterans of color from the last decade’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Holding It Down is a thought-provoking, sometimes frightening, and ultimately exhilarating combination of music, poetry and song, created from the actual dreams of young veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The artists and Pi Recordings will donate profits from Holding It Down to charities benefiting post-9/11 war veterans.

Acclaim for live performances of Holding It Down:

“intense, provocative and honorable”
— The New York Times

“… a story that’s concise, accessible and as serious as the nightly news.”
— Time Out New York

“Epic in scope, yet poignant in its emotional nuance…. With Holding It Down Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd have offered a model of how artists can present social commentary that is profound yet unsentimental; complex yet focused; provocative yet inviting.”
— Sequenza 21

“… an intensely ambitious, successful work….” 
— Washington City Paper 


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