#  "Defiant Life" Named "Best of 2025 So Far" by Boston Globe 

 





September 19, 2025

 

 

- [ Department News ](/news-categories/department-news)
 
 

 

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."

[*Defiant Life* is available now on most music services](https://ecm.lnk.to/DefiantLife).



 

 

 



 

 

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