Vijay Iyer Trio
Last night we went to see Vijay Iyer’s trio at the Berklee Performance Center. They were really something. Their music is really complex, with lots of different threads orbiting around each other. But it really rocks too. This clip gives a pretty good idea of what they sound like live.
When they get going, they may be the loudest Jazz trio I’ve ever heard, and we were sitting in row H, so it got pretty loud. Some of the people sitting next to us got up and moved to the back.
Vijay and Stephan Crump (the bassist) are amazing together. Instead of doing simple solos, they play these complex, layered pieces with holes missing, and the other one comes along and fills all of the holes in with a couple of deft touches.
Marcus Gilmore (the drummer) on the other hand seems like he’d be comfortable playing anywhere, anytime, with anybody. He’s simply amazing to watch at work.
Vijay was a riot at the microphone. Funny and thoughtful at the same time. You can get a little bit of a sense of that in this clip about their great album Historicity.
