Musiqology Philadelphia Event: Guthrie P. Ramsey + Vijay Iyer

Nate Chinen’s New York Times feature on pianist, composer and educator this past week focused on jazz pianist Vijay Iyer’s latest recording, one that the author thought “defied category.”  Published under the “Pop” section, the article discusses Iyer’s ECM label debut.  I like artists whose work troubles the consensus of the music industry’s categories.  Iyer is exemplar in this regard, and I’m looking forward to our public conversation this coming Monday at UPenn.

Vijay’s gentle demeanor belies the fierce and bold musical and scholarly statements he’s made over the last ten years. The music that Vijay composes and performs is challenging, beautiful, thought-provoking and inspiring. Listening to some of his discography is quite an experience as his works are halting—they summon one’s concentration to full attention. One of the qualities that set his work apart from others is that for someone routinely described as a jazz musician, Vijay often pushes outside of the “groove” orientation of this music system and infuses his art with other ways to achieve trajectory and direction. We are accustomed to hearing specific melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic configuration in “jazz.”  Vijay, nonetheless, display his highly idiosyncratic voice by way of sonic allegory.  That is to say, he achieves “direction by manipulation motivic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials in ways that comprise the tension-release properties of tonal relationships and “swing feeling” but arrive at them through other means.  His work to my ears expands beyond the boundaries or, at least, pushes at the borders of “jazz.” Vijay wears this pendant for experimentalism on his sleeve as he combines circular motives, rugged bass lines, and forceful, sometimes ragged drumming ideas into his soundscapes. At the same time, his music can be characterized as orderly and graceful, precise and purposeful.  His recent achievements—a Harvard music professorship and a MacArthur “Genius” grant make his career that much more boundary busting.  I’m looking forward to reading more of his scholarship that will most certainly inform the freedom we hear in his music praxis.

Check out this moving version of the song “Star of the Story” by the funk group Heatwave.