Description
Pianist-composer Vijay Iyer follows his 2021 ECM disc Uneasy - the first to showcase his trio featuring bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey - with Compassion, another album in league with these two gifted partners. The New York Times captured the special qualities of this group, pointing to the trio's flair for playing "with a lithe range of motion and resplendent clarity...while stoking a kind of writhing internal tension. Crucial to that balance is their ability to connect with each other almost telepathically." Compassion, Iyer's eighth release as a leader for ECM, continues his drive to explore fresh territory while also referencing his forebears along the way, two of them long associated with the label.
The album includes a powerful interpretation of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed," which Iyer selected as an indirect homage to the late Chick Corea. Another tip of the hat comes with "Nonaah," a whirlwind of a piece by avant-garde sage Roscoe Mitchell, a key mentor for the pianist. Then there are Iyer's own melodically alluring, rhythmically invigorating compositions, ranging from the pensive title track to the hook-laced highlights "Tempest" and "Ghostrumental."
Vijay Iyer: piano
Linda May Han Oh: double bass
Tyshawn Sorey: drums
Press:
"Over a dozen diverse tracks, nine written by Iyer – there is also a spirited interpretation of the Stevie Wonder earworm Overjoyed – the music ranges across a complex Venn diagram of blues, classical, soul, funk and free improv, with a deep knowledge and respect for jazz (there, I said it) at its intersecting centre. It is heady and visceral stuff, a state-of-the-art trio working at the very highest level." - ****1/2 The Irish Times
"Improvising around Iyer compositions and numbers by Stevie Wonder, Roscoe Mitchell and more, these musicians foreground openness and receptivity." - **** The Guardian
"This is a kind of pure trio music, a three-into-one and one-from-three modus operandi, partly due to the great strength of character of each player, partly due to the democratic, egalitarian nature of the material, none more so than the title track, which gently flows and ripples over a calm, supple beat, so that each hiss of cymbals, purr of bass and skim on the keyboard is heard with clarity. Yet everything blends into a deeply expressive whole." - **** Jazzwise
"The album is irresistibly listenable, an immersive 66 minutes that exhales a particular aesthetic history even as it pulls on the pain and anxiety of our present." - 8.1 Pitchfork
"With Compassion Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey have furthered the work begun on Uneasy, and in doing so are creating a new and exciting direction for the piano trio." - Jazz Views
