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The Vijay Iyer Trio live at KPLU

2011 Grammy nominee, Vijay Iyer stopped by the KPLU studios with his trio on February 8, 2011 for a live in-studio performance.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kplu/local-kplu-951634.mp3

The Vijay Iyer Trio’s latest release, Historicity, won a number of "Album Of The Year" awards in 2010 and has been nominated for a 2011 Grammy as "Best Jazz Instrumental Album."

Pianist, Vijay Iyer, seems pleased by this recognition but not really fazed by it. In fact, during his trio’s visit to the KPLU performance studios on February 8, they only played one piece of music from Historicity—"Smoke Stack" by one of Iyer’s mentors, Andrew Hill.

The trio also performed their arrangement of Michael Jackson’s "Human Nature" (as seen in the video below) as well as an original composition,"Optimism," which is an as-yet unrecorded work-in-progress.

Between songs KPLU Music Director, Nick Francis, talked with Iyer about the power (and the logic) of the jazz trio configuration of piano, bass and drums, as well as his journey from the world of science, where he holds a masters degree in physics, to the world of jazz where, some would say, he holds the future.

Coming up: Swingin’ piano master Benny Green will be performing live on KPLU February 15, hosted by Abe Beeson.

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Studio Sessions PianoMusicLive Studio Sessions
Justin joined KNKX in 2009 as the station's first Multimedia Manager. In this role, Justin helped to produce multimedia content, and implement systems and procedures in efforts to transform KNKX from a traditional broadcast station into a multi-platform media organization.
Nick began working at KNKX as a program host in the late 1980’s and, except for a relatively brief hiatus, spent the next three decades with the station. He worked as a jazz and blues host, music director and production manager. Nick retired from KNKX in 2024.