Vijay Iyer's Top 5 Records of 2017
January 3, 2018 | by Vijay Iyer
Vijay Iyer at SFJAZZ (Photo by Ronald Davis)
The brilliant and adventurous pianist and composer Vijay Iyer is a musician who stretches the boundaries of jazz, but has long reached beyond jazz's vocabulary. A 2017-18 SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director, Vijay Iyer shares his top 5 records of 2017 ahead of his upcoming residency at the SFJAZZ Center – four different projects over four nights, running January 18-21.
JLin, Black Origami. This is electronic dance music's rhythmic vanguard: clattering, rambunctious, spiritually attuned. Jerrilyn Patton works from the Chicago style called "footwork," assembling an appealingly jagged, animated mosaic from unlikely sonic shards, evoking and provoking human movement. Listen.
Jen Shyu, Song of Silver Geese. Jen is a visionary vocalist, composer, and multidisciplinary artist who spins gorgeous tales of tragedy and redemption. She describes this album as "a multilingual, ritual music drama." Her music is utterly virtuosic in its synthesis of disparate elements, but it's her sheer, unflinching humanity that grabs you and doesn't let go. Listen.
Esperanza Spalding, Exposure. Not an "album" but something more radically intimate, this revolutionary 77-hour stunt – in which she and her brave bandmates live-streamed the entire process of creating an album from scratch – gave us a shared cultural moment, viewed by millions. It posed a righteous upending of industry priorities, and a riveting object lesson in vulnerability and trust. I'm proud to have Esperanza as my new Harvard colleague – she stays creating! Watch highlights.
Wadada Leo Smith, Najwa. He is still my hero, teacher, and friend – and at 76, he continues a prolific pace. This recording is stacked with four electric guitarists (including his grandson Lamar), electric bass, drums, and percussion; Smith's trumpet cuts right through that thick texture, ringing out with the grandeur and mystery of his native Mississippi. The pieces pay tribute to past musical masters or to moments in Smith's life, and the music stretches and bucks like a glorious dragon. Listen.
Roscoe Mitchell, Bells for the South Side. Another hero and teacher, and (still, thankfully!) a Mills College professor, this woodwind master / multi-instrumentalist / sonic innovator has changed my life many times with his musical creations, which often bring listeners to the frontiers of perception and consciousness. Here he assembles eight of his closest collaborators for a searing, purposeful arc of sonic and textural creations. This is a monumental document from one of the greatest to ever do it. Listen.