Rez Abassi and Vijay Iyer transform jazz

By Vyjayanthi Vadrevu

PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 12, 2012

Last Sunday's concert at McAllister Auditorium, Invocation, was the brainchild of jazz composer and guitarist Rez Abassi, who brilliantly used the Pakistani Sufi musical form, qawwali, as a palette to color American jazz with subcontinental moods. He was accompanied by Grammy nominated Vijay Iyer on piano, the soulful Dave Binney on saxophone, and the highly versatile Michael Sarin on drums.Johannes Weidenmueller provided a velvety backdrop to the flowing sounds on bass. The artists were hosted by Musical Bridges Around the World, a non-profit dedicated to enhancing San Antonio’s cultural landscape through scintillating musical performances from around the world. I had an opportunity to speak with Abassi and Iyer about their music.

Both musicians draw inspirations from traditional Pakistani and Indian music, and apply them to jazz; their parents were part of the first large wave of South Asian immigrants to arrive in the U.S. Abassi regularly uses these influences from the subcontinent to stretch the expression of his guitar playing to produce sitar-like sounds, and is known for employing what he calls “emotional listening” to get into the spirit of the music. He also collaborates with his wife on arranging her poetic ghazalsby applying jazz’s harmonic structures to this otherwise melody- and rhythmic-centered South Asian musical form.

“While there is a lot of science in terms of technique and theory to my jazz music, it should ultimately move you and be emotionally potent, and that can only come from an organic process,” said Abassi.
Read more: http://sacurrent.com/music/rez-abassi-and-vijay-iyer-transform-jazz-1.1415523