Essentials/ Various - Essentials

Three essential albums from Vijay Iyer are included on this release. "Historicity" is Vijay Iyer's first full album in the classic piano trio format and, at the same time, a profound redefinition of this genre. The pianist's examination of the concept of historicity is the album's center of focus. It's about "being placed in the stream of history, " he explains in the liner notes. "Without a doubt, it's the past that's setting us in motion." On "Historicity", Iyer travels full circle from covers such as "Galang", by global hip-hop star M.I.A, to Stevie Wonder's "Big Brother", back to his own very early pieces. Not least due to the fact that the trio almost sounds like a single person, associations here succeed as never heard before. Vijay Iyer Trio's "Accelerando" is an album driven by the visceral, universal, intoxicating experience of rhythm. It sees Iyer and his telepathic trio mates go both deep and wide. They light up material that ranges from a brace of bold Iyer originals and pieces by great jazz composers to surprising interpretations of vintage and recent pop and funk tunes. Absorbing and infectious, this is jazz about not only the mind but the body. With "Solo", Vijay Iyer enters the supreme discipline of jazz piano. It is his first solo album and, fittingly, he dedicates himself to serious reflection. "Autoscopy refers to a certain type of 'out-of-body experience' in which you perceive your actions from outside of (usually above) your body. Playing music occasionally offers that experience. In a different sense, so does making a solo album." Gesture, character, and disposition come together in this impression of one's own actions which conveys, visibly and audibly, the intent which precedes the action. The disposition, Iyer's expression, can not only be heard on every piece on the album but, in a magical way, can also be felt.