Pianist Vijay Iyer, whose trio album
Historicity made my list of
Favorite Albums of 2009, presents works for solo piano on
Solo. Iyer’s pianism, grand and gnarly, is often accompanied and agitated by the machine-like drumming of powerhouses Marcus Gilmore or Tyshawn Sorey. Alone, his music has equal gravity, with added elements of introspection and humor.
Iyer’s angular and combustive style fits into various musical containers, from the hip-hop electronica of lyricist Mike Ladd, to the bulging and volatile atmospheres of the trio Field Work. Paving the way for jazz postmodernists, he sees pop music and free jazz alike as equal firm foundations on which to build.
Solo emphasizes this view, by including covers of pieces by
Michael Jackson,
Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Steve Coleman.
Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” opens the album with flowing chords and a sweet, melancholy mood similar to the 1983 original on Thriller but with a subtle rhythmic transformation. On Monk’s “Epistrophy” Iyer strays from the original to take a driving, gloomy approach. The music under Iyer’s fingers loses some of Monk’s tickling dissonances, but the interpretation is unique and broad, incorporating a balance of ferocity and elegant, floating harmonies.
The highlight of the album is “Black and Tan Fantasy,” which Duke Ellington and trumpeter Bubber Miley recorded in 1927. This swelling and playful version is stylistically nostalgic, although involving some of Iyer’s dissonances and rhythmic play over a traditional stride pattern.
The musical scope of
Solo is expansive, consisting of bubbling atonal improvised runs, impressionistic peals, traditional jazz, and icy landscapes drawing from modern jazz and contemporary classical music.
Release Date:
August 31st, 2010 on ACT Records
Tracks:
- Human Nature
- Epistrophy
- Darn That Dream
- Black & Tan Fantasy
- Prelude: Heartpiece
- Autoscopy
- Patterns
- Desiring
- Games
- Flaurette Africaine
- One For Blount
