Voted the #1 Rising Star Jazz Artist and #1 Rising Star Composer in the Downbeat Magazine International Critics' Poll for both 2006 and 2007, VIJAY IYER was described in The Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years." The son of Indian immigrants, he is a largely self-taught creative musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon and drawing from a range of Western and non-Western traditions. His widely acclaimed recordings include Panoptic Modes, Blood Sutra, Reimagining, and Tragicomic with his trio/quartet ("a formidable force... startlingly effective and unflinchingly forward-looking... one of the great rhythm units of the day" - Chicago Tribune); Your Life Flashes, Simulated Progress, and Door with the experimental three-piece unit Fieldwork ("a jazz power trio for the new century" - NPR's Fresh Air); Raw Materials in his longstanding duo with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa ("a total triumph from beginning to end" - All About Jazz); and In What Language? and Still Life with Commentator, his large-scale works in collaboration with poet-performer Mike Ladd ("unfailingly imaginative and significant" - JazzTimes).
