Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Check out these articles on upcoming LPR artist: Vijay Iyer!

Among the young lions of jazz piano, Indian- American artist Vijay Iyer is a standout. He is perpetually on "best of" lists, most recently as the recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association 2010 award for Musician of the Year (an honor previously given to Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman and Wayne Shorter). His 2009 recording, "Historicity," was chosen as the No. 1 jazz album by myriad critics in the U.S. and in Europe. And his newest effort, "Solo," released last week, is already garnering raves. He'll be celebrating with a performance at (Le) Poisson Rouge, New York's Greenwich Village music club, on Sept. 10.

...To read more from "The Neuroscience of Jazz" by Stuart Isacofff on the Wall Street Journal, click here!

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It’s amazing how connected all the notes feel, not just in melodic structure but in their physical relationship to each other. It’s as if he has eighty-eight fingers, which might be why there are moments when it’s easy to forget this is a solo album. He fills the space nicely, calling upon bebop and modern influences and filtering them through his unique style. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if he drinks a lot of double espressos. The album has an inescapably caffeinated feel that occasionally grows weary, making me long for quarter notes, half notes, and even a few whole ones. If we’re lucky, maybe his next project will be an album of instrumental ballads.

To read more from "Vijay Iyer Goes Solo" by Chris Kompanek on Classical TV Blog, click here!


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Vijay Iyer's story is not uncommon in modern jazz. He's mostly self-taught (although he did study the Suzuki method for violin) and played in rock bands as a kid before turning to the piano and jazz. But as a highly trained scientist who holds degrees in mathematics and physics, including an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Technology and the Arts from the University of California at Berkeley, Iyer is unique in drawing on the modern technological world as a major compositional influence on his trio. What is old becomes new again in Iyer, as he embodies a Renaissance approach to blending science and art.

To read more from "Vijay Iyer on Piano Jazz" by Grant Jackson on NPR, click here!


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Mr. Iyer isn’t from the main line of the jazz tradition. His music makes you ask important questions about what that tradition really is and who defined it, but the point is that his truest musical self doesn’t extend directly from Art Tatum or Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, or McCoy Tyner, even if he borrows ideas from them all. He sees jazz as a wide grid: a 100-year-old longitude and a latitude that extends to Michael Jackson, Sun Ra and free improvising. The Jackson hit “Human Nature” opens the record, a Sun Ra homage called “One for Blount” ends it, and “Autoscopy,” a tumbling free piece, comes right in the middle.

To read more from NY Times Critic's Choice CDs, click here!


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And finally! Check out Vijay Iyer's Solo CD Release Show @ LPR THIS FRIDAY(September 10th), to purchase tickets click here!!


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