supersigil: Compassion by Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey

I'm a long-time follower (and one-time student) of NYC-based pianist Vijay Iyer. His duo and quartet records with fellow Indian-American Rudresh Mahanthappa were really important for me, putting a distinctive spin on their mentor Steve Coleman's rhythmic and harmonic developments. That said, the last release of Iyer's I really loved was 2012's Accelerando. Moving from ACT to another German 3-letter acronym label (ECM) after that record, Iyer also changed up his trio's rhythm section, switching out Stephan Crump and Marcus Gilmore for the current line-up with Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey. Sorey (like Gilmore) is surely one of the greatest drummers on the planet, and another musician whose career I've followed closely over the last couple of decades. He and Iyer have a long history of playing together, and it shows here. I'll be coming back to this one.

Compassion

2/2/2024