Professor Vijay Iyer was recently interviewed by The Washington Post, where he discussed his latest release with collaborators Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey, “Compassion”.
EXCERPT— As enchanted staircases go, the entry to the Village Vanguard is tough to beat. Duck down the steps and you’re walking into one of the most storied rooms in American music. You’re also stepping out of the cruelty of the world. On a recent Tuesday evening, at the start of a sold-out five-night residency, the pianist Vijay Iyer acknowledged the thickening psychic weight of the news cycle — creeping authoritarianism, a war that continues to kill children by the thousands — by explaining to the assembled that he’d titled his new album “Compassion” because “I wanted to hear that word as much as possible.”
Then, Iyer and the members of his trio — Linda May Han Oh on bass, Tyshawn Sorey on drums — took to their instruments as if they were trying to hear each other as much as possible, racing into an elite zone of virtuoso communication, playing with a precision that refused to sacrifice feeling or groove, everything loud, everything clear.
Chris Richard, The Washington Post
Photo: Christopher Gregory-Rivera for The Washington Post