Compassion is the sophomore set from the
Vijay Iyer-led trio with bassist
Linda May Han Oh and drummer
Tyshawn Sorey for
ECM, following 2021's
Uneasy.
Compassion was co-produced by the pianist and
Manfred Eicher. Its songs embrace pain, joy, pleasure, and suffering, yet are articulated with openness and equanimity. According to
Iyer's liner notes, the players developed their music on-stage.
Iyer composed nine of the set's 12 tracks. Half are from recent performance projects -- "Maelstrom," "Tempest," and "Panegyric," from Tempest, are dedicated to the victims of the pandemic -- like the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival. Another three, "Ghostrumental," "It Goes," and "Where I Am," are drawn from 2022's Everywhere I Go, an ensemble project inspired by writings of poet
Eve L. Ewing. "Prelude Orison" comes out of "For My Father," a classically tinged elegy for
Iyer's father premiered in 2022 by pianist
Sarah Rothenberg. The album's three covers seemingly glance in the rearview even as they journey forward.
The title-track opener is introduced by 55 seconds of
Sorey carefully and spaciously working his drum kit. When
Iyer and
Oh enter, they do so with graceful chords, as if offering a processional. The theme shifts, altering dynamics and tempo, transforming itself into a whirlwind before whispering to a close. "Arch," for
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, enters with a rippling, syncopated scalar piano vamp that illuminates a dramatic chord progression.
Sorey punctuates with fills and breaks on snare and hi-hat as
Oh responds harmonically and rhythmically. Her solo is physical, dazzling even; it becomes the hub for the tune's assorted tonal voices. The reading of
Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed" was inspired by
Chick Corea's performance during his final livestream. It was developed on the loaned piano
Corea used for it. During the album's final third, the musicians deliver one of the most creative, locked-in improvisations on the record. The stillness in "Prelude: Orison" softly, spaciously quotes from "Nature Boy" before deliberately illuminating vulnerable resonance in each note, emerging into each deliberately placed chord voicing which is then underscored by
Oh's poignant solo. This version of
Roscoe Mitchell's oft-recorded "Nonaah" is a mere two-and-a-half minutes long -- à la the
Art Ensemble of Chicago's on
Fanfare for the Warriors -- it captures the detailed structural architecture then buoys it with humor, physicality, and precision. "Free Spirits - Drummer's Song" resurrects
John Stubblefield's classic cut as performed by
Mary Lou Williams on an album of the same title. The trio delivers a similar knotty, joyful back-and-forth interplay while enthusiastically extending its harmonic reach before emerging with a two-measure section of
Geri Allen's "Drummer's Song" -- a tune they cut in full on
Uneasy.
Sorey inventively bridges, then dances around piano ostinato and driving bassline with sharp articulation as the group weave the rest into a careening, joyful whole.
Compassion is a hefty companion to
Uneasy. Musically, it's deeper and wider. Their mature group invention is heightened by their playing together live. They bring a fresh, intensely interactive, seemingly time-elasticizing approach to the jazz piano trio that is at once bracingly kinetic, intimate, and lyrical. ~ Thom Jurek
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