Vijay Iyer

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Vijay Iyer (2008)

Vijay Iyer (born October 26, 1971 in Albany , 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 from Indian music.

Live and act

The son of Indian immigrants received classical violin training from the age of three, but soon switched to the piano. After completing a degree in physics, he studied music at the University of California Berkeley . In 1998 he received his PhD with the thesis Microstructures of Feel, Macrostructures of Sound: Embodied Cognition in West African and African-American Musics with David Wessel . During his student days he worked with musicians such as Steve Coleman , George Lewis , David Wessel, Miya Masaoka , Liberty Ellman , Imani Uzuri , Elliot Humberto Kavee and Aaron Stewart .

He has a special artistic relationship with the saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa , whom he met in 1995 through Steve Coleman:

“Rudresh and I were part of the first generation of Indian Americans. We were both driven early by the search for identity. Who we really are, or at least an idea of ​​what we are, we learned through music. "

- Vijay Iyer

Iyer has lived in New York City since 1998 . With the Vijay Iyer Quartet he has performed at festivals in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He also recorded with Steve Coleman's Five Elements , Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory , Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet , Greg Tates 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 .

With hip-hopper Mike Ladd , he presented a trilogy with the albums In What Language (2003), Still Life with Commentator (2006) and Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project (2013), which deals with the effects of the last Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are busy on everyday life in the United States.

Prizes and awards

Iyer's album Historicity was named “Album of the Year” by Down Beat and JazzTimes. With his group he received an ECHO Jazz in 2010 as the best international ensemble for this album. In 2012, he received a Performing Artists Award from the Doris Duke Foundation in New York ; In addition to him, 20 other musicians as well as theater and dance artists received the sponsorship award, each endowed with $ 225,000, for their outstanding creativity and artistic output. In the same year he was awarded the Greenfield Prize , which is awarded annually to personalities of all genres whose work has had a significant influence on cultural life in the USA. In 2013 he received a MacArthur Fellowship .

In June 2012, Vijay Iyer was the first musician ever to win the annual critics poll of Down Beat magazine 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 more as "Rising Star Composer". In 2015 he was named “Jazz Musician of the Year” in the Down Beat Critic Polls (and his trio Jazz Group of the Year); in 2018 he was again named “Jazz Musician of the Year”.

Discographic notes

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Broecking " The Sound of the Revolution (Interview with Vijay Iyer) ." Der Tagesspiegel , February 6, 2013
  2. ↑ cf. Ssirus W. Pakzad: Vijay Iyer. Indian for followers. In: Jazzthing, No. 73 ( Memento of December 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Vijay Iyer wins Downbeat Critics Polls 2012 in five categories
  4. ↑ Convinced again - Vijay Iyer, Manfred Eicher and ECM clear again at the DownBeat Critics Poll
personal data
SURNAME Iyer, Vijay
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Albany , New York