Vijay Iyer Sextet Far From Over (2 LP)

180g Vinyl Double LP!
One of Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2017!
2019 Stereophile Magazine Record to Die For!
Keyboardist-composer Vijay Iyer’s energized sequence of ECM releases has garnered copious international praise. Yet his fifth for the label since 2014 – Far From Over, featuring his dynamically commanding sextet – finds Iyer reaching a new peak, furthering an artistry that led The Guardian to call him “one of the world’s most inventive new-generation jazz pianists” and The New Yorker to describe him as “extravagantly gifted… brilliantly eclectic. Far From Over features this sextet of virtuoso improvisers – with horn players Graham Haynes, Steve Lehman and Mark Shim alongside rhythm partners Stephan Crump and Tyshawn Sorey – leveraging a wealth of jazz history even as it pushes boldly forward. The music ranges from the thrillingly explosive (“Down to the Wire,” “Good on the Ground”) to the cathartically elegiac (“For Amiri Baraka,” “Threnody”), with melodic hooks, entrancing atmosphere, rhythmic muscle and an elemental spirit all part of the allure. “This group has a lot of fire in it, but also a lot of earth, because the tones are so deep, the timbres and textures,” Iyer says. “There’s also air and water – the music moves.”
"An object lesson in music for the heart, the head and the feet, ‘Far from Over’ often sounds like vivacious folk music or displaced blues, reflects the hipness of Miles Davis’s 1960s postbop bands and 70s electronic ones or the contemporaneity of slow-burn Bad Plus buildups, and yet is consistently spine-tingling in improvisations that sound simultaneously inside and outside the harmonies. […] As a contemporary jazz set, ‘Far from Over’ has just about everything." - John Fordham, The Guardian
"A music that is at the same time demanding (and hard to play) and hits us with a direct punch on the Solar Plexus, so every temptation to tasty gourmandise sweeps away at the outset. The group has its own sound composed of all six individual voices; the tension between powerful soloistic eloquence and punched tuttis is an attraction of this CD (something like a peaceful implementation of the military maxim 'marching separately, striking together'). Here is a real BAND, with Iyer at best as primus inter pares. Quick-witted, but completely devoid of the thought of pallor." - Peter Rüedi, Weltwoche
"The pianist Vijay Iyer uses with his sextet everything that he considers useful from the post-free era. The trumpeter Graham Haynes and the saxophonists Steve Lehman and Mark Shim blow wild, rough and gentle solos, the rhythm section grooves and rumbles: Perfect." - Werner Stiefele, Stereoplay
"In ten new, carefully conceived pieces, with compositional sensitivity and inspired piano playing, Vijay Iyer stimulates the activity of a great new sextet, which in no time at all lures out of the comfort zone of listening habits and the mainstream [...] Phenomenally like Steve Lehman and the amazing Mark Shim manipulate their timbres, while Tyshawn Sorey shows the great ramification of his drumming art, wonderfully contrasted by the velvety tone of Graham Haynes, the son of the Drummers Roy Haynes." - Karl Lippegaus, Fono Forum
"The listener's senses should be sharpened when he gets involved in the new recording by the pianist Vijay Iyer. In his highly complex compositions, whose rhythms are inspired by classical Indian and West African music, fat grooves meet tricky-tricky post bop and chamber music. [...] With 'Far From Over' Iyer managed to create a fresh, multi-layered album. His best so far." - Andreas Collet, Badische Zeitung
"Vijay Iyer's fifth album for ECM is certainly a very special milestone within his 23 releases so far. Because the ten tracks on 'Far From Over' are characterized by the unconventional creativity and complexity in the compositional work of the 45-year-old universal genius and serial downbeat poll winner and peppered with all sorts of rhythmic, melodic and harmonic refinements, but are played by the new sextet with a passion and enthusiasm that is absolutely contagious. They keep corners and edges, atmospheric breaks and unpredictable moments of surprise at the ready – and capture you completely from the first second. […]. Of course, Iyer also convinces on piano and Fender Rhodes with his sophisticated solos, but above all he inspires as an unflinching helmsman who navigates his first–class crew through this musical maelstrom full of curiosity, adventurism and risk-taking - without ready-made routes and safe havens. Fantastic!" - Peter Füßl, Culture
"‘Far From Over’ is ambitious, varied, and thrilling. If you are tempted to see it as a more conventional ‘jazz’ record from someone who has worked in many different forms, I suppose that’s okay. […] Like Hancock’s Mwandishi group, this sextet exploits key assets: a brilliant, orchestral drummer, a sly and expressive brass player, cutting saxophonists, and a leader and pianist whose compositions are both challenging and memorable. ‘Nope’ makes the connection most emphatically—a gorgeous funk tune that is as greasy and hip as any of today’s Robert Glasper tracks but has more historic weight. The twinned saxophones, jousting over the groove, bring to mind the early Steve Coleman M-Base recordings. Iyer’s ghostly Fender Rhodes playing within the rhythm section is the hook to the Mwandishi group." - Will Layman, Popmatters
"The 10-track, nearly hour-long album offers one of the bandleader’s strongest and most varied programs—one in which feverish ensemble writing hangs together with groove-oriented tracks and sparer experimental textures. […] The union of players and material inspires a new synthesis: the sound of Iyer consolidating strengths and discovering some new ones as he settles into the vibe created by his most potent band yet." - Seth Colter Walls, Pitchfork
"‘Far From Over’ is a splendid showcase for Iyer as pianist and composer, and there is plenty of space for the other sextet members to shine as well. A fine addition to his discography, and an excellent place for new listeners to start." - Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz
"Rambunctious, furiously funky…. [This sextet offers] the sort of head-bobbing drive and invention that has landed Iyer on multiple best-of lists over the years" - Los Angeles Times, June 2017
"Vijay Iyer’s dazzling new album may put jazz divisions to rest for ever. He takes a classic hard-bop sextet and feeds into it the rhythms of funk, hip-hop, Indian classical music and African drums. The line-up is then put to work on dense, gripping tunes that oscillate between well-drilled orchestration and uninhibited improv. Jazz tradition becomes a launch pad into frontiers far beyond mere fusion. The band are a true ensemble: solos emerge stealthily from the morass, earn their place against the complex, competitive backing, then dissolve back into it. […] It’s all held together by the unassuming felicity of bassist Stephan Crump and the furiously flexible drummer Tyshawn Sorey. A bold new platform for the future of jazz." - Chris Pearson, The Times
"Pianist Vijay Iver has built an impressive career over twenty years, channeling his interests in classical music, physics, music cognition and, of course, jazz into a substantial body of work that continues to grow. ‘Far From Over’, his first recorded project with his Sextet, not only adds an item to his catalog – it also marks a new milestone. […] Iyer really makes an effort here to highlight all sides of his musical skills, letting two decades of experience boil into an exceptionally tasty dish. Iyer has already proven himself a jazz master, but with ‘Far From Over’, he takes his talent as composer, player and bandleader to new heights." - Michael Toland, Blurt
"‘Far From Over’ is replete with exhilaration and exuberance, from the opener, Poles to tracks like Down to the Wire and Into Action. There is a sense of bold adventure in what is, according to Iyer himself, music that is 'fiendishly difficult' to play betimes. In the middle of its wild careering, Poles slows down for a gentle flugelhorn interlude - no particular structural reason, but it's a nice serendipity. So you don't know what's coming half the time, which is fundamental to the album's charm. […] An album worth listening to and savouring for its fearless sense of eclectic adventure." - Paddy Kehoe, RTE
"This time he has expanded his regular trio with bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Tyshawn Sorey by three prominent wind players: saxophonists Mark Shim and Steve Lehman and cornettist and trumpeter Graham Haynes. Iyer has written complex, very varied compositions for this sextet, between fusion and big band sound, between chamber jazz and free funk. Vijay Iyer composes wide chords, but at the same time leaves a lot of room for the improvisations of his fellow musicians. The result is music that is consistently exciting for the listener, that can reflect very different moods, that demands close listening and open ears and that was rightly described in the first reviews with an Ornette Coleman record title as 'The Shape of Jazz to come'." - Bernhard Jugel, Bavarian Radio
"Everyone needs to bring their individuality, then something bigger will grow. This musical democratization program is a response to the upheavals of the American present: challenging, lively." - Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung
"Guided and driven by the pianist Iyer, the wind players show a skill that seems as casual as it is brilliant. Connoisseurs know and laymen feel how much love there is in the tones." - Oliver Creutz, Stern
"Pianist Vijay Iyer is all about high velocity, dense harmony and heavy, sculptural left-hand playing. As an improviser he’s more interested in solid bone structure than melodic narrative. That’s all fine – actually, it’s remarkable – but how could it have gotten so popular? What’s it in Iyer’s sound that explains his broad appeal? I think it has something to do with the balance he strikes between grounded power and frictionless flow. Somehow, it suggests questions that go beyond the music. For him, the jazz combo is an experimental space, where the limits of collective strength and individual action can be tested. […] we get a new kind of pounding urgency: the odd-metered onslaught of the title track; the rough-shod funk of ‘Into Action’; the swarming and charging ‘Down To The Wire’." - Giovanni Russonello, Downbeat
"The music is complex, political ('struggles for equality, the rule of law and the simplest human rights are never over', the booklet says) and nothing to listen to on the side. So a wonderful opportunity to take an hour out of the crazy world." - Janko Tietz, Literary Review
"That's great what Vijay Iyer is collecting here with his new sextet – piano, bass, drums, two saxophones, a trumpet – in the depths of the post-free. [...] clever, inspired, lustful, groovy – an exercise in composed freedom with classical potential." - Markus Schneider, Rolling Stone (German Edition)
"His arrangements bring out the deeper tones and textures of his band, in a good contrast to the fire of their delivery. Iyer just keeps getting stronger with each outing, and this is his best set so far. Enjoy." - Simon Adams, Jazz Journal
"Vijay Iyer’s fifth record for ECM is the pianist’s most engaging yet. Over ten scenes, Iyer directs an original storyline with his freshly-cut diamond of a sextet […] ‘Far From Over’ is a call to listening. […] Jazz may be heard as a genre of emancipation, but Iyer understands that freedom is    illusory until actualized, that communal action is the embodiment of humanity’s reach for its flame and that music is one way to keep us from getting burned in the process." - Tyran Grillo, New York City Jazz Record
"At the time when everything is dematerializing, here is an album a little outside the line of his label which, even through a learned and modern organization of sounds, reminded us of the eternally concrete, moving nature of life." - François-René Simon, Jazz Magazine
"With this superb album, Iyer must lay to claim to having one of the most dynamic and explosive groups on the New York scene, and this must be one of the small group albums of the year. With the rate of progress of this always compelling musician, it will be interesting to hear how develops his music further." - Nick Lea, Jazz Views
"Iyer is one of the most decorated musicians in jazz. His technical erudition and facility are beyond question, but he is not for everyone. His music, in its precise, rapid execution of complexity, can sound more mathematical and austere than lyrical and personal. ‘Far From Over’ plays to his strengths. With elite players around him, he can focus on creating ferocious, protean energy (he is one of the most rhythmically centered and rhythmically gifted of pianists) and let his sidemen provide passionate responses to the form and content of each composition." - Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times
"The dynamic six-piece band kick up a storm on tracks like cacophonous opener ‘Poles’. […] Iyer says he hopes that the music will inspire and re-energise the listener in ‘a time of fierce urgency and precarity’. Intense and muscular, ‘Far From Over’ does this – and much more." - Ian Sinclair, Morning Star
"On ‘Far From Over’ Iyer brilliantly integrates avant-garde compositional leaning with contemporary pop flourishes and modern jazz. A gem." - Stewart Smith, The Quietus
"The album sweeps across a rich stylistic and textural spectrum. […] If ‘Far From Over’ is the work of an innovative composer taking the pulse of leading-edge jazz and steering it in vital and surprising new directions, it’s all the more remarkable that the same description could apply to all five of his bandmates." - Shaun Bradz, Jazziz
"His sextet sounds unusually expressive, sometimes even funky. But this is only one facet of a sound panopticon that reflects tradition in many ways. Anthemic modality, turbulent collective passages, free outbursts, dream-like electronic sequences, even romantic moments combine to form an inspiring fusion of styles of unusual density. The improvisations contain - in Internet jargon - a lot of 'content', so they are extremely rich in content. The vocabulary of Mark Shim and Steve Lehman on the saxophones is highly developed and rich in nuances, drummer Tyshawn Sorey kindles a drum fire blazing in a variety of directions. And Iyer directs all this with deliberately percussively thrown in sound particles. Because at the center of his music are sophisticated rhythmic motive cells that drive the events as intelligently as impulsively. The work of a nerd? Maybe so. But this one also has heart and soul." - Georg Spindler, Mannheimer Morgen
"Explosive to elegiac and enchanting: The varied repertoire on the jazz pianist's album, which smilingly ignores familiar boundaries, provides proof that avant-garde can be varied, exciting and rousing in the hands of improvisational, fantasy-gifted musicians." - Werner Rosenberger, Wiener Kurier
"This is a record that we were waiting for from a musician who has done so much in the last 20 years. Finally, Iyer has recorded with horns, building a jazz sextet that occasionally reminds you of the Jazz Messengers but much more often follows in the footsteps of Herbie Hancock's too-little-lauded Mwandishi group. Graham Haynes is a revelation on cornet and flugelhorn, with Mark Shim playing tenor and Steve Lehman on alto. In the rhythm section Iyer leans on his trio-mates Stephan Crump (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums). The result is funky, subtle, gorgeous, blues-drenched, electric, pastel, everything." - Will Layman, Pop Matters
"With ‘Far From Over’, Vijay Iyer succeeds in presenting one of his most diverse, his most traditional and at the same time a far forward album." - Wolfram Knauer, Jazz Podium
"Vijay Iyer has cultivated a broad coalition of admirers with the streamlined complexities and chant-like resonances of his music, mainly through the sterling work of an acoustic piano trio. With ‘Far From Over’, he formally introduced a six-piece unit whose sound nods toward the jazz continuum even while opening up new options for texture and counterpoint. The band's front line — Graham Haynes on cornet and flugelhorn, Steve Lehman on alto saxophone, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone — handles abstract striations as well as post-bop maneuvers. (They're also essential in the honk-and-blare strategies that frame a piece like ‘Into Action.’) And because rhythm is always the engine in Iyer's music, this album lives and dies by the tactile contingencies of his interplay with Stephan Crump's earthy bass playing and Tyshawn Sorey's whipsaw drumming. There's a political dimension here, too: ‘As the arc of history lurches forward and backward,’ Iyer observes in his liner notes, ‘the fact remains: local and global struggles for equality, justice, and basic human rights are far from over.’ With any luck, the album's title phrase also describes the road ahead for this superb sextet." - Nate Chinen, WBGO
"No single music category encompasses the sonically lustrous, rhythmically dynamic, intellectually bristling music that Iyer’s sextet has recorded here. Rich in motivic development, utterly unpredictable in melodic direction and startling in the colours it evokes, ‘Far From Over’ stands as a major statement from a pianist-composer-bandleader who already has produced several of them." - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
"If you're looking for the shape of jazz to come, here it is...the sturdiness of its design and the passion of its execution make [Far From Over] 2017's jazz album to beat." - Hank Shteamer, Rolling Stone
"Iyer's solo, duo, and trio albums have made him famous and won him a MacArthur Fellowship. But Far from Over proves that his true calling is to lead a full ensemble in which elite soloists can feed off his special energy and confront the provocative ideas in his compositions. Like so many current jazz recordings, Far from Over is a cry of rage against the darkness of the Trump Era. The players in Iyer's sextet, especially Lehman and Shim, achieve something rare: They translate into music their despair, defiance, and hard-won hope with such passion, honesty, and eloquence that they turn social protest into art." - Thomas Conrad, Stereophile Magazine Record To Die For 2019

• Double LP
• 180g Vinyl
• Audiophile High Quality Pressing
• Limited time download code included
• Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York, April 2017
• Gatefold jacket
• Made in Germany

• Graham Haynes, cornet, flugelhorn, electronics
• Steve Lehman, alto saxophone
• Mark Shim, tenor saxophone
• Vijay Iyer, piano, Fender Rhodes
• Stephan Crump, double bass
• Tyshawn Sorey, drums