The Beauty of Breaking Stuff.

The air filled with anticipation when Vijay Iyer Trio entered the stage at Jazz Standard. People clearly expected that this show was going to be special.

I was excited to see the group because listening to their studio recordings comes close to meditation. Their music is pervaded by an irresistible hypnotic pull that draws the audience into a series of swiftly changing moods, melodies, and rhythms. Integrating seemingly incompatible elements into consistent harmonies, Vijay Iyer Trio generates a unique sound bursting with creativity.

Presenting material from their latest album titled Break Stuff, the group determined the conceptual framework underlying their performance at the outset. “A break in music,” the album’s liner notes explain, “is still music: a span of time in which to act.” The argument that the spaces between musical notes are as crucial as the notes themselves may sound banal. Music cannot exist without breaks. But the tunes on Break Stuff are far from presenting conventional wisdoms. The album makes a convincing case by demonstrating that musical voids can be “the moment when everything comes to life”.

Exploring these breaks, the trio generated a magical atmosphere. I completely lost myself in the wonder of notes becoming non-notes and vice versa. All of a sudden, Jazz Standard seemed to be removed from time and space. The only thing that mattered was the musical hailstorm generated by the interplay of drum rolls, bass lines, and piano harmonies.

It took a while for me to grasp the unique qualities of each musician on stage. The first thing I noticed was the heavy bass strokes of Stephen Crump slowly disengaging from the rest of the music to become the driving force of the rhythm. While drums and piano carefully supported the bass lines, Crump played his heart out to highlight melodic breaks. This had a stunning effect. The band seemed to swing using non-notes rather than notes. I never heard something like this before and have a hard time figuring out how this was even possible.

As Crump’s bass lines gradually moved into the background again, I began to pay attention to drummer Marcus Gilmore. At first I was under the impression that he played cadences that merely provided the backdrop for the rest of the music. But that was far from what really happened. The drums engaged in a true dialogue with the other instruments. When piano and bass opened a rhythm, the drums would slowly follow, take over, and become the dominating voice for a while to then move back to the background and let the other musicians engage with his sound. Thus, moments of heavy drum rolls would be miraculously replaced by melodic piano and bass renditions of the themes that were developed by Gilmore.

 

The whole time I was struggling to understand what Vijay Iyer was doing on the piano. It seemed to be impossible to nail him down. Heavy melodramatic passages would smoothly transcend into playful tunes or mathematically precise rhythms. The piano was all over the place, masterfully filling voids or creating new ones to be bridged by Crump and Gilmore. And yet, there was a unique style in Iyer’s play that can only be described in terms of versatility. The quick but serene changes in tone, cadence, and mood generated a special quality that is peculiar to the sound of this trio.

When the music stopped, people awoke from the trance that overwhelmed them during the set. It became clear that Vijay Iyer Trio had managed to exceed the expectations of their audience. You could see that people were still dazzled by the complex and dense compositions they had experienced. It took a few seconds for them to return to reality, get up, and leave the venue. It was as if the end of the concert left a void that made people long for more of this magical music. I would not be surprised if the group had planned to achieve this effect to teach the audience a lesson. After all, it is only because of breaks like this that “everything comes to life.”

Photos by Anna Yatskevich @jazzaddikt