Reimagining by Vijay Iyer

“An organic, austere consistency of vision and accomplishment that’s simply stunning… The quartet achieves an internal sympathy and rapport that’s unsurpassed by any working jazz group today.”
— All About Jazz

“Vijay Iyer plays with a ringing bell-like tone that recalls both McCoy Tyner and Nina Simone at her most wrought, then drops small descending chords like blessings… The music conveys a narrative quality that’s very much driven by the leader that combines with a strong lyrical sense to create intensely engaging music.”
— Signal to Noise

“Here is a musician who is discovering as he goes, one who never gives in to notions of excess or mere vanguard speculation, but who moves purposefully into the process of discovery. And jazz is better for it. Reimagining is the sound of the mature Iyer, who is at once authoritative and inquisitive, finding and relating mystery as he uncovers it and, in the process, furthering the jazz tradition. Bravo.”
— All Music Guide

Reimagining, the Vijay Iyer Quartet’s 2005 release originally on Savoy Jazz is now available in Europe from Pi Recordings. The follow-up to Blood Sutra (Pi 901), the CD features featuring nine powerful new originals for his quartet Vijay Iyer, piano; Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone; Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums (Roy Haynes grandson making his recording debut) – capped off with a radical solo piano interpretation of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The CD balances rapturous emotion and knotty intellect, melodic flow and rhythmic heft. As usual, Iyer works here with his alter-ego Mahanthappa. Having played together for over ten years in each others respective quartets and their duo project Raw Materials, Mahanthappa is certainly the only horn player who has completely internalized Iyers aesthetic. Together they navigate Iyers complex compositions with disarming ease. Unlike many lyrically minded young pianists, Iyer is unafraid to attack the keys, but his percussive approach, marked by antic unfurling chords is shaded by mastery of touch. With Crumb and Gilmore establishing dense force fields, Iyer moves seamlessly from modal patterns to swing effects to subtle funk figures. Another great release from one of the finest bands in jazz today.

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” composer-pianist VIJAY IYER has carved out a unique path as an influential, prolific, shape-shifting presence in twenty-first-century music. He received a MacArthur Fellowship, a United States Artist Fellowship, and three Grammy nominations.

vijay-iyer.com