Vijay Iyer Trio

Acclaimed pianist-composer VIJAY IYER and his colleagues Marcus Gilmore (drums) and Stephan Crump (bass) have updated the classic jazz piano trio, creating a powerful, cutting-edge new music that is firmly grounded in groove and pulse, but also rhythmically intricate and highly interactive; fluidly improvisational, yet uncannily synchronized; emotionally compelling, as well as innovative in texture, style, and musical form. Their original music is influenced by the jazz piano titans such as Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Andrew Hill and Cecil Taylor; the classical sonorities of composers such as Reich, Ligeti, Debussy, and Bartok; a wide range of rock, soul, funk, hip-hop, dub, electronica, and African music; and the rhythmic vitality and melodic nuance of the music of Iyer's Indian heritage. Howard Reich wrote in The Chicago Tribune: "The three players practically have become a single rhythmic organism... one of the great rhythm units of the day." This trio is documented on Vijay's new album "Tragicomic" (Sunnyside, 2008) as well as "Reimagining" (Savoy/Pi, 2006).

Vijay Iyer Trio - Historicity

vijay iyer trio -Comin´up- Bridgestone Music Festival 2008

vijay Iyer trio live: "questions of agency"

Vijay Iyer trio - "trident"

LISTEN TO MP3s:


VIJAY IYER was named #1 Rising Star Jazz Artist and #1 Rising Star Composer by the Downbeat International Critics Poll for both 2006 and 2007. The American-born son of Indian immigrants, he has released twelve recordings, including Tragicomic (2008) with his trio and quartet; Door (2008) with the trio Fieldwork; Raw Materials (2006) in duo with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa; and Still Life with Commentator (2007), his second large-scale work with poet-performer Mike Ladd. Vijay tours frequently as a leader, and he has collaborated with Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Amiri Baraka, Amina Claudine Myers, Butch Morris, Ethel, Imani Winds, dead prez, Karsh Kale, George Lewis, DJ Spooky, John Zorn, Dennis Russell Davies, and the American Composers Orchestra. He received the 2003 CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts, the 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and project grants from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America, Creative Capital, American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, Arts International, and The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. He is a faculty member at New York University, New School University, and the School for Improvisational Music, and has published articles in Music Perception, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Current Musicology, Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies, and Sound Unbound. He is a Steinway artist.

STEPHAN CRUMP is a Memphis-bred bassist/composer whose music can be heard on his three acclaimed albums and in numerous films and television shows. His latest CD, Rosetta, "an intensely lyrical work" (Jazzwise, UK) made numerous top ten lists for 2006 and was lauded for the "unassuming honesty" (AllAboutJazz.com) and "persistent creativity" (Bagatellen) which have helped establish Crump as "an impressive and original voice" (The Wire, UK) as both composer and performer. He has performed and recorded in the US and across the globe with a diverse list of artists -- from late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland to Portishead's Dave McDonald, contemporary folk artist Lucy Kaplansky, The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, Big Ass Truck, Dave Liebman, Sonny Fortune, Eddie Henderson, The Mahavishnu Project and Bobby Previte, among others. In addition to his association with Vijay Iyer since 1999, Stephan is currently a member of guitarist Liberty Ellman's quartet, Joel Harrison's "Harbor" and singer/songwriter Jen Chapin's band.

MARCUS GILMORE (born 1986) was inspired by the music of his grandfather, legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, who gave him his first set of drums at age 10. He took naturally to jazz as well as classical theory and percussion. Already one of New York's most in-demand young drummers at age 21, he has performed around the world with some of today's best known jazz artists, including Chick Corea, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Natalie Cole, Clark Terry, Cassandra Wilson, Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Christian Scott, Najee and many others. Marcus joined Vijay Iyer's group in 2003, at the age of 16. He also leads his own ensemble, and recently debuted a commissioned suite of his music, titled "American Perspicacity."

Enter your FULL email address below to receive updates from Vijay.

select album for more info.