It's been three years since Stephan Crump, Marcus Gilmore, and Vijay Iyer made a record together, and in that time, the trio's headliner, Iyer, has clawed his way across the keyboard to a pretty exalted place within the jazz world. He's still working hard, but he's about done paying dues, and he makes magazine covers and the top of year-end lists routinely. The man is one of the best in the world at what he does, and he has one of the finest piano sounds, too, mixing big sheets of sound with blood-rush passages of intricate staccato patterns; he also frequently puts the real action in the left hand while the right holds down the harmonic fort, giving him a thundering, heavy sound when he wants it.
Iyer seems to like the trio format-- he cut a great trio record called Tirtha last year with two musicians originally from India, guitarist Prasanna and tablaist Nitin Mitta-- and he sounds very good in a small combo setting, where he gets to ride or at least hit back at a rhythm section, but also gets to handle the melody. Accelerando is his hardest-hitting trio album yet, loaded as it is with compact, forceful pieces of music. Iyer's own production gives a lot of stereo real estate to Gilmore's kick drum and Crump's bass, meaning that every fast, hard passage hits with a bang, and the quieter, sparser sections, such as the tumbling melodic hook of their version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" (which Iyer tackled on his own two years ago on Solo), feel lighter than air by comparison.
The closing interpretation of Duke Ellington's "The Village of the Virgins", which the group infuses with a sort of gospel energy, is one of those lighter moments, and when it arrives, it feels as though the band is dusting all those aggressive block chords and tone clouds off of itself and readying for the next challenge. That aggressive stuff is fantastic, though. "MmmHmm" (a Flying Lotus cover) hangs together loosely as it flies along, and it doesn't even bother with a bassline-- Crump instead plays arco, bowing patterns and melodic answering statements on his bass. The song features an accelerando in the true meaning of the musical term, beginning slow and moody and gradually speeding up until it sounds like even the piano is out of breath.
The word that keeps coming to mind as I listen to this album over and over again (and then again) is power. Everything about it projects power-- emotional power, the power of brute physical force, musical power. It runs on every available cylinder, and if you're out there looking for a path into modern jazz from the world of rock or hip-hop, this record speaks with a directness and verve that may make it an ideal introduction. From the first shudder of the keyboard and crack of drums to that last, celebratory walk through the village of the virgins, Iyer, Crump and Gilmore keep things spellbinding.
