Oh and Sorey aren t mere collaborators or accompanists; they re educators and composers in their own rights. Of Sorey s drumming, Iyer cites a life-sustaining kind of magic. And of Oh s bass playing, Her awareness of and relation to pulse, it s like micro-detail, he says. Those qualities and more can be found on
Uneasy, the trio s first studio record, which drops April 9 on ECM Records. The album is a mix of topical material Children of Flint with Iyer originals ( Combat Breathing ) and standards ( Night and Day ) from deep in their wheelhouse.
Most importantly, Iyer considers the pair to be his musical family; together, they re his stronghold through a racially and sociopolitically turbulent time. And with the tragic Atlanta spa shootings in the rearview, the cover where the three musicians names float around an out-of-focus Statue of Liberty is a side-eyed glance at what it means to be an American.
February 15 2021
International concerts, music films, local shows mark the 18th event, which had to change like everything else.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic began and normal life went away, the Biamp PDX Jazz Festival took place as usual in 2020 with in-person concerts. We wrapped our last day of the 2020 festival 10 days before the COVID shutdown happened, said Nicholas Salas-Harris, the festival s artistic director. We were literally one of the only jazz festivals to go to in 2020.
Well, if anything, they had a lot of time to plan for the 2021 festival, although Salas-Harris, Executive Director Chris Doss and the whole crew entered the summer of 2020 still believing the PDX Jazz Festival would happen live again. Once it appeared live wouldn t be possible and it would have to be virtual, organizers set about trying to make the best festival possible. (Upon last week s announcement that the Portland tri-county area s pandemic status had been upgraded and that some ind