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Vijay Iyer is best known as one of the foremost academics in modern music, but he is much more than that. He makes wonderful, heartfelt, and emotionally intelligent music of his own, and the New York Times has lauded him as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway.” Iyer is a musician for whom art and politics are always intertwined in a dialogue, something that was especially true during the Trump presidency. On
Uneasy, he plays jazz piano alongside Boston based drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh. The trio are not only at the top of their game on this album, but they also seem to be a natural fit. The three knew each other for years, but only began playing together in 2019. Nonetheless, one would think they had been playing as a unit for a very long time because of their obvious chemistry. In fact, Iyer has said that he sees this specific trio as “basically one organism
/ The 2021 NEA Jazz Masters class: Terri Lyne Carrington, Albert Tootie Heath, Henry Threadgill and Phil Schaap
The 2021 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert honoring Albert “Tootie” Heath, Henry Threadgill, Terri Lyne Carrington and Phil Schaap will take place on Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 8 p.m. EDT.
Presented by the National Endowment for the Arts in collaboration with SFJAZZ, this virtual event will feature prerecorded performances and tributes by an array of prominent jazz artists. The event s hosts are Dee Dee Bridgewater, 2017 NEA Jazz Master, and Delroy Lindo, an actor critically acclaimed for his role in
Da 5 Bloods.
Carrington served as musical director of the 2020 NEA Jazz Masters ceremony and concert, but as an inductee this year she is naturally free of that responsibility; it falls instead to alto saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón, a longtime member of the SFJAZZ Collective. The concert will be available to watch online, at WBGO and elsewhere, fre