Break Stuff (album)

Break Stuff
Break Stuff
Studio album by Vijay Iyer
Released	February 10, 2015
Recorded	June 2014
Studio	Avatar, New York City
Genre	Jazz
Length	1:10:36
Label	ECM ; ECM 2420
Producer	Manfred Eicher
Vijay Iyer chronology

Last updated January 09, 2024

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100^[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
All Music	^[2]
The Guardian	^[3]
PopMatters	8/10^[4]
The Irish Times	^[5]
All About Jazz	^[6]
Tom Hull	B+^[7]

Break Stuff is an album by the Vijay Iyer Trio recorded in June 2014 and released on ECM February the following year. The trio features rhythm section Stephan Crump and Marcus Gilmore.^[8]

Reception

Thom Jurek in his review for All Music says that "This trio aims at an interior center, finds it, and pushes out, projecting Iyer & Co.'s discoveries."^[2]

In The Guardian , John Fordham gave this album four stars out of five, saying, "Iyer, bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore sound joined at the hip even when sometimes seeming to be investigating completely different tunes, but almost everything here feels just as jazz-rooted as the three classic covers on the tracklist."^[3]

John Garelick of The Boston Globe stated:

Like the pianist and composer’s other trio records, it makes for a satisfying, portable Iyer, alternating math-y rhythmic concoctions like the post-minimalist “Hood” (for the Detroit techno producer DJ Robert Hood) and “Mystery Woman” (which draws from the compound rhythms of South Indian music) with varied jazz standards (Thelonious Monk's “Work,” John Coltrane's “Countdown,” Billy Strayhorn's “Blood Count”) and more atmospheric originals. Iyer, bassist Stephan Crump, and drummer Marcus Gilmore have fully incorporated electronica and hip-hop into a jazz vocabulary. Despite the album's layered meters, you couldn't ask for a more swinging “Work,” or a more moving solo-piano treatment of “Blood Count,” ending with a repetition of the questing opening phrase over somber low-register chords. With all of this band's attention to rhythm, it's nice to have an isolated example of Iyer's sensitive voice leading, his beautiful touch and tone.^[9]

Track listing

All music is composed by Vijay Iyer, except where indicated

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Starlings"		3:52
2.	"Chorale"		4:35
3.	"Diptych"		6:47
4.	"Hood"		6:10
5.	"Work"	Thelonious Monk	6:14
6.	"Taking Flight"		7:15
7.	"Blood Count"	Billy Strayhorn	4:34
8.	"Break Stuff"		5:26
9.	"Mystery Woman"		6:21
10.	"Geese"		6:38
11.	"Countdown"	John Coltrane	5:57
12.	"Wrens"		6:47
Total length:			1:10:36

Personnel

Vijay Iyer – piano
Stephan Crump – bass
Marcus Gilmore – drums

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References

↑ "Break Stuff (Metacritic page)". Metacritic . Retrieved June 26, 2017.
1 2 "Break Stuff (All Music Review)". All Music . Retrieved June 26, 2017.
1 2 "Break Stuff (The Guardian Review)". The Guardian . Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ Layman, Will (25 February 2015). "Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff". PopMatters . popmatters.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
↑ Larkin, Cormac (13 February 2015). "Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff — Album Review". The Irish Times . rishtimes.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
↑ Kelman, Johnl (5 February 2015). "r". All About Jazz . allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
↑ Hull, Tom. "Tom Hull: Grade List: Vijay Iyer". tomhull.com . Retrieved 30 July 2020.
↑ "Break Stuff". ECM Records . Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ Garelick, John (10 February 2015). "Vijay Iyer Trio, 'Break Stuff'". Boston Globe . bostonglobe.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.

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[1] "Break Stuff (Metacritic page)". Metacritic . Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[allmusic-2] 1 2 "Break Stuff (All Music Review)". All Music . Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[theguardian-3] 1 2 "Break Stuff (The Guardian Review)". The Guardian . Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[4] Layman, Will (25 February 2015). "Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff". PopMatters . popmatters.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.

[5] Larkin, Cormac (13 February 2015). "Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff — Album Review". The Irish Times . rishtimes.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.

[6] Kelman, Johnl (5 February 2015). "r". All About Jazz . allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.

[7] Hull, Tom. "Tom Hull: Grade List: Vijay Iyer". tomhull.com . Retrieved 30 July 2020.

[ecmrecords-8] "Break Stuff". ECM Records . Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[9] Garelick, John (10 February 2015). "Vijay Iyer Trio, 'Break Stuff'". Boston Globe . bostonglobe.com. Retrieved 6 June 2018.

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