APR 6-9 | VIJAY IYER
Apr 06, 2023
Miner Auditorium
PLEASE NOTE:
This page is an archive of a past production
Please visit our calendar for all upcoming SFJAZZ shows.
Original show description below.
“One of the truly great jazz musicians of our time” (Stereophile), the brilliant and adventurous pianist and composer Vijay Iyer is a musician who stretches the boundaries of jazz, but has long reached beyond the music’s vocabulary. He begins his week with a rare solo performance.
An artist possessed of a relentlessly searching intellect and formidable technique, he was the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Grant” in 2013 and the “quadruple crown” in DownBeat’s 2012 Critics Poll in the categories of Jazz Artist of the Year, Group of the Year, Pianist of the Year and Album of the Year.
A collaborator with the most creative figures in modern jazz, Iyer was an SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Seasons. He has recorded 25 albums since his debut in 1995, including his latest ECM release Uneasy, a masterpiece of the piano trio format featuring bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey who perform for the remainder of the week. This solo performance harkens back to Iyer’s landmark 2010 ACT Music release Solo — a remarkable distillation of his singular approach that made PopMatters enthuse, “Iyer defies comparison other than in convincing you that he belongs in august company. If this first solo recital was a historical test, then Vijay Iyer gets an A.”
Since 2012, the composer and pianist has been named DownBeat's 'Artist Of The Year' five times!
RECENT PRESS
› Pianist Vijay Iyer marks a bittersweet return to Bay Area for SFJAZZ run (Bay Area News Group)
Performing solo generates a very different kind of energy, flowing from a polarized dynamic that’s both deeply introspective and charged by the audience at that particular time and place.
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Performing solo generates a very different kind of energy, flowing from a polarized dynamic that’s both deeply introspective and charged by the audience at that particular time and place.
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Personnel
Vijay Iyer piano
One of today’s most important pianists… extravagantly gifted… brilliantly eclectic
The New Yorker
Personnel
Vijay Iyer piano