feature photo: Craig Marsden
For the last twenty years, Vijay Iyer has stood as one of the most renowned jazz pianists, composers, bandleaders and sidemen, freshening up an old genre by pushing out the frontiers of composition and improvisation. For the last ten of those years, he’s done that from the distinguished perch of ECM Records, expanding his legacy further by constantly introducing new ideas. For the last four or so of those years, he’s been making his mark with a new trio he leads comprising of the very in-demand bassist Linda My Han Oh and Iyer’s old cohort drummer Tyshawn Sorey.
This trio just put out their second album Compassion, another collection of fresh Vijay Iyer pieces with a few choice interpretations thrown in.
This is about an elite jazz trio as one can assemble today, but Iyer clearly not only understands the firepower at hand but how to best utilize it according to their respective style and strengths. He chooses to have Sorey lead off the titular “Compassion” knowing that the percussionist is a master manipulator of timbre and texture, able to set the tone for this sweeping, classically-inclined song before the pianist hits his first key.
Iyer turns the whole piano trio concept on its head for “Arch,” spending the first half of the song placing Oh in the front spot while Iyer lays back with the drums. It couldn’t have possibly so worked well if Oh didn’t have the proficiency to pull that off, but she does, and then some.
It’s always fun when Iyer endeavors to take on a pop song from his youth, and this time it’s Stevie Wonder’s jovial “Overjoyed,” making the song very recognizable but offering enticing supplements to Wonder’s evergreen melody. The chugging rhythm for “Maelstrom” is established by Iyer, freeing up Sorey to play around with it, putting accents in unusual spots that adds to the energy of the tune.
“Prelude: Orison” (video above) luxuriates in a lush melody rendered with such an affection that reaches up to the heights of the mighty Bill Evans. “Tempest” is where harmony is deftly folded into not one but two knotted rhythms. It doesn’t matter how tricky that pulse is, though, because Iyer finds the pocket, and Oh keeps the good vibe going with her lively aside.
“Panegyric” is a similarly graceful tune but this time Iyer gets Oh more directly involved in carrying out its gracefulness, playing in front of the piano from the get-go. Of course, Iyer gets his turn in the lead and it’s interesting how the whole band gets louder when he does, signaling a shift in fervor.
I’ve acquired an appreciation of Iyer’s unique approach to free-form jazz from dissecting his collaboration with Ivo Perelman, and here on the Roscoe Mitchell-penned “Nonaah” he tackles that form as Oh and Sorey sticks with him every staggered step of the way.
Sorey discreetly modulates the mood for the urbane “Where I Am,” driving it across a terrain of small peaks and valleys to make sure the song snaps from behind. There’s even room for funk in this fare with “Ghostrumental,” Iyer managing to be the funkiest of the three. They know they started a good groove so they wisely keep it going.
“It Goes” is Iyer alone playing a song straight up without any twists to it, just letting the colorful melody do all the talking.
John Stubblefield’s “Free Spirits” is taken on with breezy Latin sway similar to how Mary Lou Williams had tackled it, then for good measure appended it with a bit of a tune they covered on the trio’s 2021 album Uneasy, Geri Allen’s “Drummer’s Song.”
Rarely going far outside, Vijay Iyer continues to pursue his piano trio jazz revolution from within, and he’s winning that pursuit with a persistent creative spark and an inspired rhythm section.
Compassion is a present-day ECM gem, and is now available at Amazon and all the usual outlets.
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