"Defiant Life" Named "Best of 2025 So Far" by Boston Globe
In July 2025, Defiant Life, the duo album by Professor Vijay Iyer and 2024-2025 Fromm Distinguished Visiting Scholar Wadada Leo Smith, was chosen as one of the "best albums of the year so far" by The Boston Globe. The album, released on March 21, 2025, is the follow up to 2016's A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke.
In the press release for the album announcement, Defiant Life is described as "a profound meditation on the human condition, reflecting both the hardships and acts of resilience it entails. But at the same time, it also proves a testament to the duo’s unique artistic relationship and the boundless forms of musical expression it yields."
Defiant Life has received praise since its release. The Free Jazz Collective called it "one of full openness to inspiration and follows the flow of the sound itself." The New York Jazz Record said of the album, "With the dreamlike certainty of Debussy’s sunken cathedral, various trans-registral power and rhythm glide glacially in and ultimately out of focus, leaving only resonant radiance and a breathtaking fade toward silence. The album is pure magic."