We think of music as this substance that flows - you turn on the tap, and there it is, streaming off your computer - but that's not how we evolved as a species. We evolved to listen to each other,… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
We can create the sensation of community through the accrual of actions, and that's often the clichéd way that storytelling is talked about, as someone taking a solo, and that's great for lots of reasons. But I don't really like… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
What I find the challenge is with working with, say, digital machines - performing electronic music - is that when we play instruments there's… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
I use are provisional terms, and they usually put any proper nouns in critical distance. I'm in a tradition of people who resist naming,… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
It is one thing to be a virtuoso, but a different thing to play with compassion. — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
This is the last sentence of my dissertation: "What is soul in music if not powerfully embodied human presence?" — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
I find myself skeptical of music that forces you to have a certain experience, emotional reaction, or specific constructive arc of experience. But performers… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
In the 1990s I got to play in a group that played in prisons in California. We would play in maximum security wards. It… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
I want to make sure that I represent a variety of backgrounds and that represents the reality out here in the world. — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
I've realized that a lot of people come to me because of what's called identity. In the sense of "he's like me" - more… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
Beyond that, it gets down to the nuts and bolts of discipline - not a tradition or genre, I don't care about that, actually… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
Music is made of what we do when we move, and we can only move in certain ways, in certain ranges of tempo because… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
The sense of having to be the best at everything gets in the way of anybody doing anything. I put all that aside; it's… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
I like the idea of the objecthood of music being destabilized by process and things like improvisation. That's what empowers us; that's how we… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
