Vijay Iyer and alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa blend their Indian heritage with the influence of their New York jazz experience in this striking session, where they're joined by bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore. The haunting miniature "The Weight of Things" (credited to the entire quartet) leads into the furious protest song "Macaca Please" (the latter title based on a slur uttered by a U.S. senator during the 2006 campaign), a cauldron of many influences. Iyer's dramatic reworking of Bud Powell's obscure "Comin' Up" gives it a more contemporary flavor, though the reggae rhythm gets tiresome after a while. Iyer's solo interpretation of the standard "I'm All Smiles" is more conventional, though with a bittersweet flavor. "Threnody" is not to be confused with Marian McPartland's composition; Iyer's haunting melody has a sense of foreboding disaster. Recommended. - Ken Dryden
Asian-American pianist Vijay Iyer is one of the big stars of a new international jazz generation, and this vibrant set extends his fruitful partnership with alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa to include bassist Stephan Crump and the remarkable hip-hop-meets-free-jazz drummer Marcus Gilmore. Iyer's mingling of south Indian rhythmic complexities with a post-hip-hop jazz world of staccato, rhythm-generated melodies has given his work a fluid sound in which time-patterns hide inside one another, and different listeners can experience different pulses as the dominant one. (Iyer wasn't a Yale maths and physics major for nothing.) But this is far from a technical exercise. Flying Indo-bop lines with hip-hop undercurrents follow dark and dreamy speculations from Mahanthappa's brooding sax; cinematic piano trills roll under airy alto musings; pounding rhythms with Latin implications precede straight-swinging jazz piano; and many of the slow-burning, grandiloquently romantic themes suggest the breadth and free-jazz edginess of the Bad Plus. - John Fordham
Tracks
01. The Weight of Things (Gilmore/Mahanthappa/Crump/Iyer)
02. Macaca Please (Vijay Iyer)
03. Aftermath (Vijay Iyer)
04. Comin' Up (Bud Powell)
05. Without Lions (Vijay Iyer)
06. Mehndi (Vijay Iyer)
07. Age of Everything (Vijay Iyer)
08. Window Text (Vijay Iyer)
09. I'm All Smiles (Michael Legrand)
10. Machine Days (Vijay Iyer)
11. Threnody (Vijay Iyer)
12. Becoming (Vijay Iyer)
VIJAY IYER piano
RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA alto saxophone
MARCUS GILMORE drums
STEPHAN CRUMP acoustic bass
Recorded September 30 & October 1, 2007 at Bedford Studios, Brooklyn, NY
Sunnyside - SSC 1186