Vijay Iyer	"Memorophilia"		(1995 Asian Improv)

Vijay Iyer is a hip, young, bay area pianist.  His style is exciting,
invigorating and fresh.  His compositions reflect situations going on now.
On this CD his working trio is on five of the recordings, and he also
features two other ensembles, Poisonous Prophets and Spirit Complex.
The trio work is more in the progressive jazz vein.  They are enhanced
by guest alto saxophone player, Steve Coleman on two cuts (1, 7).
You can hear many influences in his music such as Geri Allen or McCoy
Tyner (see liner notes for the pantheon), but Vijay's no copycat, he 
sucks in his influences and spreads them
into his own sound.  #2 has a mid-tempo, steady pulse with a mystic feel.  The
title is "Stars Over Mars (with apologies to Elmo Hope)", I'm going to have to
pick up some Hope records to see why.  Good piano voicings.  

Spirit Complex is a roaring adventurous quintet of Vijay with
George Lewis's extraordinary trombone, Francis Wong strong tenor, Kash
Killions thumping cello and Elliot Humberto Kavee's free drumming.
They can be heard on tracks 4 and 9.  "March & Epilogue" does just what the
title says.  It starts off with a march, Lewis roars in for the first solo,
Francis comes in with an angular mixture of sounds.  The epilogue is Vijay
playing freely with Kash George and Francis in the background providing
sounds.  #9 is quiet and solemn, with Asian overtones.  It's dedicated to
the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that occurred 50 years ago.

Poisonous Prophets has a M-Base feel to it with the consistent beat of 
Jeff Bilmes on electric bass and Kavee on drums.  On "Peripatetics (#5),
Liberty Ellman does the first solo, he grooves on electric guitar.  Vijay
comes in next with hard driving  piano solo.

Vijay does a nice solo piano on "Algebra (#6)".
Visit Vijay's Home Page for more on this creative musician

-cat 11/95