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Vijay Iyer's "Entropy and Time"

Bicultural musicians often aim to very deliberately balance personal expression with representing tradition. Pioneers of “Indo-Jazz Fusion” include 1960’s musicians Joe Harriott and John Mayer. They and others engaged in cross-cultural artistic collaboration to fuse elements of differing musical traditions for the sake of musical fusion. In contrast, contemporary artists such as Vijay Iyer draw on American and South Asian musical genres for the sake of personal expression. Iyer is the son of Indian Tamil immigrants to the United States. In his composition “Entropy and Time” from the album “Tirtha”, Iyer joins forces with Indian musicians Prasanna on guitar and Nittin Mitta on tablas. Unlike their predecessors, the Iyer trio isn’t simply a conduit for their varied musical influences. Instead, the musicians on this track take inspiration from the East and West to express their individual identities and advance their unique musical vision. The result is a soothing confluence of Carnatic melodic ornamentation, contemporary jazz piano textures, and a Hindustani rhythmic sensibility that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Transcript

Tomal Hossain
Vijay Iyer’s “Entropy and Time”

(Play ~15 seconds of Sound Bite #1 [alapana], then hold under narration. Fade out entirely half-way into the final sentence of the first block of narration.)

TOMAL HOSSAIN = TH: Jazz composer-pianist Vijay Iyer’s track entitled “Entropy and Time” from the 2011 album, “Tirtha”, features a delicate balance between tradition and innovation. Iyer fuses his jazz piano chops with elements of Hindustani and Carnatic music, which are two major forms of South Asian classical music. Iyer is joined by Indian musicians R. Prasanna on guitar and Nitin Mitta on tablas, a pair of traditional South Asian hand drums. The musicians explore novel musical soundscapes and enrichen South Asian cultural identity along the way.

(Play ~30 seconds of Sound Bite #2 [anupallavi], then hold under the following narration. Crossfade into Sound Bite #3 through the course of the narration.)

TH: The musicians start out with a theme and variations over a pallavi. That’s a type of melodic refrain in Carnatic classical music. Out of this Carnatic influenced musical landscape, Iyer takes a solo that caters to fans of contemporary jazz.

(Fade up [backtime] Sound Bite #3 [piano solo] and allow to play for ~30 seconds, then hold under the following narration while crossfading between Sound Bites #3 and #4.)

After Iyer’s solo, Nittin Mitta dives into a laggi, which is a rapid string of unmetered, rhythmic patterns. As with a traditional Hindustani classical tabla solo, the rest of the trio plays the refrain as a lehra. That’s a melodic accompaniment to the tabla’s improvisation.

(Fade up [backtime] ~20 seconds of Sound Bite #4, then hold under the following narration.)

TH: 1960’s pioneers of Indo-Jazz often capitalized on mashing up Carnatic, Hindustani, and jazz music. Musical fusion involved overlapping disparate musical elements largely taken out of context. In contrast, the musicians on this track manage to experiment while staying true to traditional musical elements and structures. Their collaboration is a breath of fresh air from South Asians and those in the diaspora. In Amherst, MA I’m Tomal Hossain.

(Fade up [backtime] Sound Bite #4 once again for the last ~15 seconds of the track to play till its end.)