In this Oct. 22, 2015 photo released by ECM Records, composer-musician Vijay Iyer, left, and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in New York. The pair performed after the world premiere of their collaborative suite, “A... (John Rogers/ECM Records via AP)
By CHARLES J. GANS - The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Pianist Vijay Iyer has an unlikely backstory for a musician who’s been voted jazz artist of the year in Downbeat magazine’s critics’ poll, received a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, and is a professor in Harvard’s music department.
Largely self-taught on piano, he majored in physics and mathematics at Yale. At age 23, while pursuing his doctorate in physics at the University of California at Berkeley, he took the risky decision to become a professional musician to his parents’ bewilderment. He later received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Berkeley focusing on music and embodied cognition, or how the human body perceives music.
“I was a bit of a later bloomer and had a lot of catching up to do,” said the 44-year-old.
Iyer’s untraditional path has led him to another out-of-the-ordinary project: A collaborative suite, “A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke,” with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, based on the art of late Indian visual artist Nasreen Mohamedi, recently released by ECM Records.
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