Vijay Iyer Trio: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Vijay Iyer is probably best known as a pianist and bandleader in the AfricanAmerican creative improvisational tradition most say jazz for short though he s also several other things in music. He s a composer of chamber, large ensemble and mixedmedia works; a Harvard professor; a student of Indian classical music; a father and New York City resident. Committed as he is to multiplicity, there s one place you can see many of his interests distilled at once: the trio he s led for nearly a dozen years. The longstanding relationship he s forged with Stephan Crump (bass) and Marcus Gilmore (drums) accommodates all sorts of risk and translates into reward. The three play daring games of rhythmic interaction. They take Iyer s pieces designed for strings or big band and reduce without losing vitality. They do John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, Flying Lotus and The morning after a gig in Washington, D. C., the trio got up to visit NPR headquarters before a noon train back to New York. (There was a lot o