JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Winter 2024
PopMatters presents the best new jazz recordings from the winter of 2024 and reflects on the relationship of the Grammys to jazz.
vijay iyer
Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey Find ‘Compassion’
The Vijay Iyer Trio’s new album Compassion contains some of the pianist’s most immediately enjoyable music without sacrificing any of his usual complexity.
The 13 Best Jazz Albums of 2021
Creative, improvised music in the Black American tradition remains in a state of wonder and genre-crossing excitement in the best jazz albums of 2021.
The 50 Best Albums of 2021 So Far
The year has offered a mountainous feast of sublime music. The 50 best albums of 2021 so far are an eclectic, forward-looking, and increasingly “woke” bunch.
Pianist Vijay Iyer Looks Back and Ahead with His New Trio on ‘Uneasy’
Vijay Iyer Trio’s Uneasy is a set of modern piano jazz covering a remarkable range, featuring three brilliant musical imaginations playing well together.
The Best Jazz Albums of 2010
Jazz was working all the angles in 2010. Is there any other genre that has as much range -- from solo instruments to big bands, from instrumental to vocal, from European musicians to both North and South Americans, from truly pretty music to raucously avant-garde "noise"?
The 70 Best Albums of 2010
2010's best albums are highlighted by the emergence of a future superstar, two veteran and virtuoso rappers, and a Dream Team of indie bands releasing career peaks.
Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn Continue Their Explorations on ‘The Transitory Poems’
The Transitory Poems is a live recording of two jazz masters, Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, playing four-handed, exploratory improvisations on two pianos.
The Best Jazz of 2017
The best and most exciting jazz of 2017 is increasingly happening at the intersection of different streams of music. Reveling in a diversity of influences and therefore a kind of complexity makes it "art music", inevitably.
Rez Abbasi: Unfiltered Universe (review)
Guitarist Rez Abbasi's third look at various South Asian musics, with his band Invocation (including Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer), is one of the best of the year in jazz.
Vijay Iyer Sextet: Far From Over
The everywhere-at-once pianist has recorded with his sextet, using a bank of horns for the first time and touching several different modes. An album of surprise, tradition, and exploration. But it grooves too.
Rez Abbasi’s Invocation Premieres ‘Unfiltered Universe’ Tracks (Photos & Video)
Abbasi's third project with his band Invocation, Unfiltered Universe, draws from Carnatic music and their recent NYC premiere was captured for a live stream available here.