Vijay Iyer: Solo

"It’s the pianist alone, tagging his heroes and playing some of his own music. It’s a recital, and the kind of record most serious jazz pianists get around to at some point. It’s more serious than many. … His music makes you ask important questions about what that tradition really is and who defined it. … Mr. Iyer’s piece 'Patterns' might be most representative of his own style, a journey over hill and dale over a nine-beat rhythm. And he comes closest to successfully Iyerizing an old piece of music on a version of Monk’s 'Epistrophe,' on which he builds the song’s moving harmony into his flow without breaking pace. Ellington is a different matter: On 'Black & Tan Fantasy' Mr. Iyer uses stride figures in the left hand to support solo blues choruses that move forward from Ellingtonia to post-bebop. … Across the album, rather than making his style paramount, he’s showing you that he can play in more than one way. He’s also repping for what he respects" (Ben Ratliff, "New CDs," New York Times, 9/5/10).

View catalog record here!