In an intimate one-night-only, long anticipated Dakota debut on Jan 19, pianist Vijay Iyer
connected with an audience that he said he could tell was cultivated. It’s true, as I can attest by the fact that the person sitting next to me was rockin’ out to his music the entire night. Iyer’s musicality, I find, has an otherworldly intelligence with lyrical rhythms that showcase his excellent mental acuity and elasticity of language. His musical strategy like poet Pablo Neruda, summarized in three words, simplicity, honesty, and conviction.
Iyer had released his second trio album with bassist Linda May Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey entitled “Compassion,” (ECM Records) which includes nine Iyer originals and is repertoire that Jeremy Dutton on drums and another longtime Iyer bandmate Harish Raghavan on bass, tackled at the Dakota, along with music from his “Uneasy” album.
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