Artist description Vijay Iyer is a jazz pianist and composer whose original music draws from the history of African-American music, as well as from the music of his Indian heritage and many other sources. His music has been described by the New York Times as "bracingly expressionist jazz... full of pulsating blues" and by the San Francisco Bay Guardian as "genius... epitomizing new jazz at its best." Iyer was praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a composer and performer of international significance."

Music Style modern jazz, creative music

Musical Influences Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, Sun Ra, West African music, Indian music

Similar Artists Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Graham Haynes, Jason Moran, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Medeski Martin & Wood

Artist History As a leader or headliner, Iyer has been featured in such events as The 1999 Chicago World Music Festival, the 1999 Guelph Jazz Festival, Italy's 1999 Verona Jazz Festival, India's 1998 JazzYatra, San Francisco's 1997 North Beach Jazz Festival, the 1996 Chicago Asian-American Jazz Festival, the 1996 Desh Pardesh South Asian Diasporic Culture Festival in Toronto, the 1995 Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in Oakland, and the 1995 Asian American Jazz Festival in San Francisco. In addition, Iyer has toured and recorded extensively with the world-renowned saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman, appearing at countless major festivals in Europe and Africa and on a number of Coleman's RCA recordings. Iyer has joined forces with a wide assortment of other cutting-edge creative artists as well, ranging from the ground-breaking hip-hop group Midnight Voices, to avant-garde luminaries Cecil Taylor, George Lewis, Gerry Hemingway, and ROVA Saxophone Quartet, to next-generation innovators Miya Masaoka and Peter Apfelbaum, to the legendary African-American poet Amiri Baraka.

Group Members Vijay Iyer, piano; Jeff Brock, acoustic bass; Brad Hargreaves, drums (now holding it down in Third Eye Blind!), Liberty Ellman, guitar; Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone; Aaron Stewart, tenor saxophone; Eric Crystal, soprano saxophone; Kevin Ellington Mingus, acoustic bass; Jeff Bilmes, electric bass; Elliot Humberto Kavee, drums

Instruments piano, keyboards

Albums "Memorophilia," "Architextures"

Press Reviews "...BRACINGLY EXPRESSIONIST JAZZ... FULL OF PULSATING BLUES..." - The New York Times "...A COMPOSER AND PERFORMER OF INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE..." - San Francisco Chronicle Online "... ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING JAZZ PIANISTS AROUND..." - East Bay Express, Berkeley, California "...NIMBLE AND ARCHITECTONIC..." - Greg Tate, The Village Voice "KEYBOARD VISIONARY... an inventive, challenging musician who manages to be thoughtful and soulful at the same time." - San Francisco Bay Guardian "...AN IMMENSE MUSICAL TALENT..." - All About Jazz online "Iyer's playing is always marked by an acute sensitivity to his environment and a style that is UNDERSTATED BUT POWERFUL." - Option magazine"PIANO MARVEL..." - NOW Magazine, Toronto "...AN ONCOMING PHENOMENON, already up to his fingers in the most advanced music of our wildly contradictory age..." - Amiri Baraka

Additional Info also appears on Liberty Ellman, "Orthodoxy"; Steve Coleman, "Genesis", "Myths, Modes & Means" & "The Sonic Language of Myth"; Midnight Voices, "Howling at the Moon"; Miya Masaoka, "What is the Difference between Stripping and Playing the Violin?"

Location New York City, New York - USA

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