Described in The Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years," Vijay Iyer brings his outstanding trio - including Marcus Gilmore (drums) and Stephen Crump (bass) - to Seattle once again for this special concert.
Grammy-nominated composer-pianist Vijay Iyer was described by Pitchfork as "one of the most interesting and vital young pianists in jazz today," by the Los Angeles Weekly as "a boundless and deeply important young star," and by Minnesota Public Radio as "an American treasure." His most recent honors include a 2013 MacArthur fellowship, a 2012 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, an unprecedented "quintuple crown" in the 2012 Down Beat International Critics Poll (winning Jazz Artist of the Year, Pianist of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, Jazz Group of the Year, and Rising Star Composer categories), a "quadruple crown" in the JazzTimes extended critics poll (winning Artist of the Year, Acoustic/Mainstream Group of the Year, Pianist of the Year, and Album of the Year), the Pianist of the Year Awards for both 2012 and 2013 from the Jazz Journalists Association, and the 2013 ECHO Award (the "German Grammy") for best international pianist.
March 2014 marks the release of Mutations, Iyer's eighteenth album and his debut for the prestigious ECM label: a recording for piano, string quartet and electronics, the first album to document his works for chamber ensembles. His previous release, Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project (2013), is his third collaboration with poet Mike Ladd, based on the dreams of veterans of color from America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was hailed as #1 Jazz Album of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and described in JazzTimes as "impassioned, haunting, [and] affecting." Two tremendously acclaimed and influential albums, Accelerando (2012) and Historicity (2009), both feature the Vijay Iyer Trio (Iyer, piano; Marcus Gilmore, drums; Stephan Crump, bass), recently described by PopMatters as "the best band in jazz."
The performance of Vijay Iyer Trio, presented in collaboration with SF Jazz and Musical Instrument Museum, is supported by Presenter Consortium for Jazz, a program of Chamber Music America funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.