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JazzDigger Home > I - Jazz Artists > Vijay Iyer > Item 4
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Blood Sutra
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by Vijay Iyer
Sales Rank: 136297
Price:$16.98
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Album Details
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1. Proximity Crossroads
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2. Brute Facts
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3. Habeas Corpus
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4. Ascent
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5. When History Sleeps
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6. Questions Of Agency
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7. Kinship
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8. Stigmatism
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9. That Much Music
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10. Imagined Nations
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11. Because Of Guns Hey Joe Redux
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12. Desiring
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"The cohesive group's ethos is at once reflective and kineticthis is exciting and eminently listenable stuff, intuitive in bearing and dynamic in execution. An essential for adventurous listeners, [it] could also serve as an ideal introduction to Iyer's burgeoning oeuvre." - JAZZTIMES
"Raises Iyer's writing and playing to the next level Blood Sutra finds him engaging in sharply diverse but well-balanced forms on each track - and coming up a winner every timenot simply a great jazz record, Blood Sutra is a statement of purpose from an artist whose youth stands in contrast to his irrefutable skill." - JAZZIZ
"Blood Sutra is a terrifically challenging record. But challenging music is often the most rewarding, and this suite of 12 perfectly interlocking songs follows through on that promiseIyer's compositions are moving jazz in a new direction." - COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT
The Vijay Iyer Quartet's stunning follow-up to Panoptic Modes now re-released on Pi Recordings! The word "blood" conjures up a series of symbolically charged associations: health, kinship, identity, race, violence, liquidity and desire. "Sutra" is a Sanskrit term meaning "thread," and it is used to denote ancient sacred and scholarly texts on the healing arts, mathematics, yoga, Buddhist practice, love, and many other subjects. Thus, this album is the quartet's multi-threaded conversation on the densely clotted subject of blood, the fluid process of associative meaning and the flowing, pulsating collective meditation.
All 12 pieces are Iyer originals - with the exception of "Because of Guns (Hey Joe Redux)" - and feature the band's rhythmic hallmarks as well as the well-documented interplay between Iyer and Mahanthappa. This generation's version of Monk and Coltrane, Blood Sutra showcases what is now recognized as one of the most fruitful relationships in jazz today. Reimagining, released in 2005, was listed in JazzTimes' Top 10 of 2005, and continues the documentation of the duo's relationship.
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Listener Reviews & Comments
With Blood Sutra, I believe we're witnessing the emergence of a major figure in the history of jazz. I don't say this lightly. After repeated listenings to this entirely remarkable disc, I can do nothing but conclude that Vijay Iyer just seems to have the chops, original concept, unique voice, and weird charism that marks the very top echelon of jazzmen. A striking player (ha, ha), Iyer is one of the more percussive pianists in the history of jazz; he literally beats on--and beats up on--his instrument, pummels it into submission, as it were. Even on slower, balladic numbers (e.g., "When History Sleeps," "Desiring") he's still pretty much pounding the ivories within an inch of their life--just at a less frenetic pace. He's chosen bandmates that perfectly match his expressionistic approach: Stephan Crump on bass, himself a fine leader (check out his Accurate debut, Tuckahoe); Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto sax, fast becoming perhaps THE alto player of his generation (see his remarkable Black Water); and Tyshawn Torey, a name new to me (really, WHO IS THIS GUY?!), on drums. The latter seems the key player here. Since the leader has such an odd rhythmic sensibility, it takes a certain controlled mayhem to properly contextualize the vibe, which Torey seems always to nail. What it all adds up to is an inherent restless probing, the band sticking its collective nose in any and every musical place that might have some interest. Not what one would call conventionally pretty--more angular and usually just flirting with tonality--the music nevertheless often stumbles on, one might say, passages of harsh beauty. What it lacks in traditionally regarded prettiness, it more than makes up for in sheer invention--rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, and interactive. One struggles to find analogs, and the only ones near to hand--Monk, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Horace Tapscott, perhaps--seem outrageous when applied to one so young and just at the beginning of his career (this is about his fifth or sixth session as leader). But I believe Vijay Iyer can reasonable be spoken of in the company of these giants. Proof: his short solo number, "That Much Music" (as in, Who else can cram THAT MUCH MUSIC into 2:30?). One must admit that listening to this music is anything but relaxing. Rather, it's more like an encounter with aesthetic suicide bombers: there's shrapnel and musical body parts strewn everywhere. One marvels that anyone can even survive such an event, and one is worn out just having experienced it, even vicariously. But I don't want to discourage anyone from picking this up; it is eminently worth hearing, even if it requires rather close attending and will take more than a little commitment and getting used to. Along the way, Iyer even throws little musical bones the listener's way, such as the closer, "Desiring," which is about a close as he ever comes to what might be regarded as conventionally pretty, although it still has an entirely cool edginess. One hesitates to dub anyone the Next Big Thing in jazz, but if there's a qualifier, it's Vijay Iyer. You'd be smart to jump on this bandwagon before it becomes impossibly crowded.
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Blood Sutra
by Vijay Iyer
Price:$16.98
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