Vijay Iyer is an acclaimed jazz pianist

Vijay Iyer, Lena Adasheva/Courtesy of the artist

August 26, 20178:03 AM ET
SCOTT SIMON

Vijay Iyer is an acclaimed jazz pianist, MacArthur winner and Harvard professor of music. His new album, recorded with a six-person band, is called Far From Over. With the band, he says, he wanted to write with "different dance rhythms and dance impulses" in mind; the record also reflects Iyer's belief that jazz is "a category that keeps shifting."

Iyer spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about his approach to jazz and the histories it carries. Hear the conversation at the audio link, or read on for an edited transcript.

Scott Simon: How did this group of musicians begin to come into your life, and how did you begin to play together?

Vijay Iyer: Well, I moved to New York about 19 years ago, and some of them I met not long after that. It's really come into its own; it has its own identity and its own way of working together — you know, that builds a certain kind of trust, a certain bond that I think is expressed in the music. And it sort of supports it, so that we're able to sometimes go out on a limb and do something a little bit wild. 

Going out on a limb: Isn't that what jazz is all about?

I don't know; I think that word gets used and overused and misused and kind of caricatured. I think of it as the history of a people, and the history of ideas, a history of defiance, a history of unity, a history of joy and transcendence — and also a history of responding to conditions of oppression and terror. So I always think about my relationship to that history as a South Asian-American, and I try to honor that history while still being myself.

read more at: http://www.npr.org/2017/08/26/545890108/vijay-iyer-on-jazz-s-history-of-defiance-his-influences-and-playing-in-a-sextet