Pianist Vijay Iyer seems to have found his best musical breeding ground in the sextet format. This one, with Graham Haynes/ct-fh-el, Steve Lehman/as, Mark Shim/ts, Stephan Crump/b and Tyshawn Sorey/dr has the pianist/leader able to showcase his formidable chops, but also explore complex textures and rhythms with rich support from the horns. A hip hoppy funk pieces such as “Nope” makes the crying horns more palatable in a larger format with Iyer’s trapeze net of a Fender Rhodes, while the luminous “End of the Tunnel” can have Haynes’ delay action cornet hover like a mist over Iyer’s impressionistic sonic scenery.
Complex grooves and cultural cross pollinations abound as on the spicy title track and post bop meets with South Asia on “Good the The Ground” with Sorey creating an avalanche of groove while “Down to the Wire” swings with hard bop verve. As the title implies, Iyer has more to say.
ECM Records