Pianist Vijay Iyer has created a considerable impression on the international jazz scene. Born in the USA of Indian parents he is based in New York and has played with many of that city’s most important musicians. His first high profile gig was as the regular pianist for M Base saxophonist Steve Coleman’s group and he has also worked with Roscoe Mitchell, Amiri Baraka, Butch Morris and hip hop artist Mike Ladd.
He originally studied mathematics and physics at Yale and UC Berkeley before turning to music full time with the offer from Coleman. Iyer brings the same intellectual rigour to his music which is frequently intense and demanding, full of dense clusters of notes and complex harmonic and rhythmic ideas.
His trio features bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Their two albums “Historicity” (2009) and “Accelerando” (2012)-both ACT- offer radical re-interpretations of jazz compositions and pop songs alongside often complex iyer originals.
