Vijay Iyer

Vijay Iyer ( born October 26, 1971 in Rochester, New York) is an American jazz pianist and composer. His playing and his compositions combine avant-garde, groove, pop and tradition, but also show influences of Indian music.

Life and work

The son of Indian immigrants received from the age of three years, a classical violin training, but soon moved to the piano. Initially he completed a study of physics, he studied at the University of California Berkeley music. In 1998 he received his doctorate with the work Microstructures of Feel, Macro Structures of Sound: Embodied Cognition in West African and African-American Musics. During his studies he worked with musicians such as Steve Coleman, George Lewis, David Wessel, Miya Masaoka, Liberty Ellman, Imani Uzuri, Elliot Humberto Kavee and Aaron Stewart.

A special artistic relationship he maintains with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, whom he met in 1995 on Steve Coleman:

" Rudresh and I belonged to the first generation of Indian Americans. We were both driven by early search for identity. Who we really are, or at least an inkling we have learned through the music. "

Since 1998, Iyer lives in New York City. By Vijay Iyer Quartet he has performed at festivals in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In addition, increased with Steve Coleman's Five Elements, Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory, Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet, Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar, Amiri Baraka's Blue Ark and played with musicians such as Cecil Taylor, Graham Haynes, Butch Morris, Dead Prez, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Gerry Hemingway, T. Sankaran, Okkyung Lee, Kevin Ellington Mingus and Will Power.

Prizes and awards

  • Iyer's album Historicity was honored by Downbeat and Jazz Times as " Album of the Year ".
  • With his group, he received an ECHO Jazz 2010 as the best international ensemble for this album.
  • From the Doris Duke Foundation in New York in 2012, he received a Performing Artists Award; next to him were 20 other musicians and theater and dance artists with the $ 225,000 each doped Award for their outstanding creativity and artistic creativity.
  • In the same year he was awarded the Greenfield Prize, which is awarded annually to individuals of all art forms, whose work has a significant impact on the cultural life in the United States.
  • In June 2012, Vijay Iyer won the annual Kritikerpoll Downbeat magazine as the first musician ever the same in five categories: For Accelerando as " Album of the Year ", as " Jazz Musician of the Year " and pianist for the " Jazz Group of the Year " and also still as a " Rising Star Composer".
  • In 2013 he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

Disco Graphical Notes

  • Memorophilia, 1995
  • Architextures, 1998
  • Your Life Flashes, 2002
  • Blood Sutra, 2003
  • In What Language? 2004 ( with Mike Ladd )
  • Simulated Progress, 2005
  • Historicity, 2008
  • Solo, 2010
  • Tirtha (ACT, 2010)
  • Accelerando, 2012 ( with Trio, Stephan Crump, bass, Marcus Gilmore, drums, jazz album of the year 2012 in the Downbeat critics polls )
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