LISTEN TO SAJA-SAMMA WEBCAST WITH VIJAY IYER:
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010
9 am-10 am, New York time
See local time around the world: http://timeanddate.com/s/1k3f
==> Listen live, or later to a recording:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2010/02/09/music-vijay-iyer
(you can set an e-mail reminder for yourself at that link)
Or call-in to listen and/or talk to him at +1-347-324-5991.
Send your questions/comments via e-mail to saja[at]columbia.edu (subject = webcast) of via Twitter @sajahq. You can also use the chatroom that will be open at the link above to ask live questions. You can also post your questions in the comments section below.
2009: The year British-Indian R&B artist Jay Sean topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts with "Down" and the year Indian-American jazz musician Vijay Iyer and his Vijay Iyer Trio's "Historicity" album was the most honored jazz album of the year. The latest accolade: He topped the fourth annual Village Voice Jazz Critics' Poll. From the VV article by Francis Davis:
The last ballot has been cut-and-pasted, and I couldn't be happier with the results of the fourth annual Village Voice Jazz Critics' Poll. Oh, sure I could—but with a record 99 critics voting, what would Nate Silver have said the odds were of my top four actually finishing No. 1 through 4 for Album of the Year?
Nothing's better than a close race where you're cheering for both sides, and Vijay Iyer's Historicity—a classic piano-trio album if your definition extends, as mine does, to such maverick examples as Herbie Nichols's Blue Note records, Paul Bley's Footloose!, Don Pullen's New Beginnings, and Misha Mengelberg's Who's Bridge, alongside accepted-as-canonical Monk, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans—built its narrow lead over alto saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill's This Brings Us To, Volume 1 only late in the game.
[The Nate Silver reference is to the statistician and founder of FiveThirtyEight.com, the politics predicting site that took the electoral-college world by storm in 2008.]
This is the most important such poll out there and one of many honors that the 38-year-old Iyer received this year:
#1 Jazz/Pop Album of the Year - The New York Times
#1 Jazz Album of the Year - National Public Radio, U.S.A.
#1 Jazz Album of the Year - Los Angeles Times
#1 Innovative Jazz Release of 2009 - Chicago Tribune
#1 Best Jazz of 2009 - PopMatters.com
#2 Jazz Album of the Year - JazzTimes Poll (40 critics voting)
Read more about Iyer (what the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich said about him: "By now, there can be no doubt that pianist-composer Iyer stands among the most daringly original jazz artists of the under-40 generation") and listen to his music at Vijay-Iyer.com and follow him on Twitter: @vijayiyer.
Among the 99 critics participating in the VV poll was music writer Siddhartha Mitter, whose archive of work on a variety of topics in a variety of places can be found at SiddharthaMitter.typepad.com.
BTW, M.I.A.'s breakout hit, "Galang" (seen on Honda Civic ads) is one of the cover songs, interpreted by Iyer, on "Historicity" and he mentions it in the YouTube video above.
PHOTO: Preston Merchant
Post your comments here.
EARLIER: Jay Sean tops the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts with "Down"
RECENT SAJA MUSIC WEBCASTS:
- Salman Ahmad, lead singer of Junoon, Pakistan's bigger rock band
http://www.sajaforum.org/2010/01/books-salman-ahmads-rock-roll-jihad-webcast.html - Jay Sean, who hit #1 on the
Billboard charts with "Down"
http://www.sajaforum.org/2010/01/webcast-jay-sean-charttopping-singersongwriterproducer.html - A.R. Rahman, music maestro
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/12/webcast-ar-rahman.html - George Mathew, classical music
conductor and philanthropist
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/12/music-george-mathew-.html
