Vijay Iyer releases a bit of “Historicity”

In a recent news release, Vijay Iyer explains the word “historicity” as the simple fact of being placed in the stream of history — along with everything it may imply. The idea of today’s creations drawing from older sources compelled Iyer to title his new trio CD “Historicity.”
A presentation of interpretations of other composers’ material, “Historicity” explores tunes ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Andrew Hill to Stevie Wonder to M.I.A. Joining Iyer on this project is bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore.
Iyer has worked with a wide range of contemporary artists, including Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Amiri Baraka, Wadada Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Imani Uzuri, Dafnis Prieto, Karsh Kale, and John Zorn, composed pieces for classical ensembles including the string quartet ETHEL and Imani Winds, and scored film, dance and theater works. Iyer shares a bit about his project to fans via youTube.