The Transitory Poems | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Live album by | ||||
Released | March 15, 2019 | |||
Recorded | March 12, 2018 | |||
Venue | Franz Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, Hungary | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 73:57 | |||
Label | ECM 2644 | |||
Producer | Manfred Eicher | |||
Craig Taborn chronology | ||||
| ||||
Vijay Iyer chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | [1] |
AllMusic | [2] |
Financial Times | [3] |
Jazz Journal | [4] |
Jazzwise | [5] |
Pitchfork | 7.5/10 [6] |
PopMatters | 7/10 [7] |
Tom Hull | B+ [8] |
The Transitory Poems is a live album by pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn recorded at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest on March 12, 2018 and released on ECM a year later. [9] [10]
The duo had previously played together in Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory in 2002 on Song for My Sister . [1] The Transitory Poems consists of eight tracks offered as tributes to formative influences including pianists Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Geri Allen, and the painter and sculptor Jack Whitten. [11]
Dan McClenaghan of All About Jazz stated: "The music's in the air, and then it's gone. The disc's title seems to nod to this sentiment. The music itself does, too. Instant composing, spontaneous arrangements, a gorgeous fluidity of ideas mutating in the moment with an enchanting and lovely spaciousness. And then it's gone, unless somebody records it... The Transitory Poems sounds like two artists colluding in a search for solutions to beautiful mysteries, completely in the moment. That there are no solutions is beside the point. It is the search, the journey that counts." [1]
Matthew Kassel of Pitchfork wrote, "They both operate in what might be described as the avant-garde. But they’re also different musicians. Iyer is mathematical at the keyboard, with a precise, percussive touch, while Taborn, who is more of a figurative thinker, gets by on suggestion and metaphor. His sound is ruminative and spacious... Their styles mesh so well that it can be difficult to distinguish one set of hands from the other, as though a four-armed being had taken a seat at the piano and decided to play for an hour and a quarter." [6]
Simon Adams of Jazz Journal commented, "Throughout, the two pianists mesh their lines almost imperceptibly, dovetailing their rhythms and embellishing melodic details but always giving the other room to breathe. In places, their music can be austere, even daunting, but throughout there is an underlying empathetic warmth and sometimes tenderness. For two quite different stylists to have a produced a set of such unified coherence is a remarkable achievement. Full marks and many stars all round." [4]
All tracks are written by Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn except as noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Life Line (Seven Tensions)" | 13:02 | |
2. | "Sensorium" | 4:17 | |
3. | "Kairòs" | 8:56 | |
4. | "S.H.A.R.D.S." | 9:11 | |
5. | "Shake Down" | 6:40 | |
6. | "Clear Monolith" | 10:46 | |
7. | "Luminous Brew" | 8:17 | |
8. | "Meshwork / Libation / When Kabuya Dances" |
| 12:48 |
Total length: | 63:57 |
Chart | Peak position |
---|---|
US Top Jazz Albums (Billboard) [12] | 9 |
Vijay Iyer is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. The New York Times has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway". Iyer received a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. He was voted Jazz Artist of the Year in the DownBeat magazine international critics' polls in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2018. In 2014, he received a lifetime appointment as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he was jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.
Craig Marvin Taborn is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music.
Far Side is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory recorded at the Stadtsaal in Burghausen, Germany on March 17, 2007, and released on ECM in 2010.
Avenging Angel is a solo piano album by American jazz pianist and composer Craig Taborn recorded in July 2010 and released on the ECM label.
Chants is an album by the Craig Taborn Trio recorded in New York in June 2012 and released on ECM April the following year. The trio features Taborn on piano with rhythm section Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver.
Mutations is a studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer recorded in September 2013 and released on ECM the following year. The titular suite features a string quartet consisting violinists Michi Wiancko and Miranda Cuckson, violist Kyle Armbrust, and cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman.
Accelerando is a studio album by Indian-American pianist Vijay Iyer recorded in 2011 and released on the ACT label in 2012.
Turn is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell which was recorded in 2005 and released on the French RogueArt label. He leads a new quintet with longtime rhythm section Jaribu Shahid on bass and Tani Tabbal on drums, pianist Craig Taborn and new Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter Corey Wilkes.
Song for My Sister is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell which was recorded in 2002 and released on Pi Recordings. It was the third studio recording by the Note Factory, a nonet with twin rhythm sections. Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn will later record duo album The Transitory Poems in 2019.
Triptych is the debut album by a free improvisation trio consisting of Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker and two American musicians: pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The trio had its inception in 2003, when a European tour came up and Marilyn Crispell, Anker and Cleaver's regular partner, was unable to participate. The album was released on the English Leo label.
Floating Islands is the third album by Danish jazz saxophonist Lotte Anker with her trio with pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver, which was recorded live at the 2008 Copenhagen Jazz Festival and released on the Danish ILK label.
Daylight Ghosts is an album by Craig Taborn, with Chris Speed, Chris Lightcap, and Dave King. It was released by ECM Records in 2017.
Wiring is an album by Trio 3, a jazz group consisting of saxophonist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, with guest pianist Vijay Iyer. It was recorded in 2013 and released by Intakt Records.
Highsmith is an album by Craig Taborn and Ikue Mori. It was released in 2017 by Tzadik Records.
A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke is an album by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Vijay Iyer which was released in March 2016 on ECM Records.
Uncharted Territories is a two-disc studio album by English jazz bassist Dave Holland together with saxophonist Evan Parker, percussionist Ches Smith, and pianist Craig Taborn. The album was released on May 11, 2018 via Holland's own Dare2 Records label.
In What Language? is a collaborative studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and American hip hop musician Mike Ladd. It was released on Pi Recordings in 2003.
Still Life with Commentator is a collaborative studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and American hip hop musician Mike Ladd. It was released on Savoy Jazz in 2007.
Octopus is a live album by jazz pianists Kris Davis and Craig Taborn. The album was recorded in 2016 and released on 26 January 2018 by Pyroclastic Records.
Uneasy is an album by American pianist and composer Vijay Iyer recorded in December 2019 and released on ECM in April 2021. The trio features rhythm section Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey.