Vijay Iyer and Stephan Crump, by Justin Saglio for the Boston Globe

Vijay Iyer Trio at the Regattabar, April 10, 2015
Boston Globe
April 13, 2015

I'll admit it, I was nervous going into this one. I hadn't written about jazz regularly since my days as the assistant editor of Jazziz, fully 15 years ago – an odd development, really, since access to jazz and improvised music was what caused me to move to New York City in 1993 in the first place.

Sure, I did some small pieces here and there for Time Out New York, but reviewing concerts is a different thing than profiling artists or previewing events. Going into this specific assignment, I also knew that Vijay Iyer is an artist whose work has attracted a lot of attention and ink, meaning that whatever I wrote wasn't likely to float under the radar.

Happily, the gig gave me a lot to think about, the writing came easily, and the response has been gratifying. I remain happy to defer to the excellent Jon Garelick as the principal jazz writer for the Globe (read his review of Iyer's new CD, Break Stuff, here). But I'm also eager to augment Jon's efforts, whenever and wherever it's useful to do so.

One more thing: Henry Threadgill is among the greatest American composers of all time – period, full stop.