My music is always called "cerebral." It is a way of saying I'm Asian, and therefore everything I do is brainy. — 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… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
I make a lot of music with other desis - that's hugely important to me, but it can't be the sum total… — 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
My concern with this approach is that music becomes a substance devoid of people. It's a consumer model of what music is:… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
We think of music as this substance that flows - you turn on the tap, and there it is, streaming off your… — 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… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
You figure out how to create opportunities to make music, and then, if you take care of the music, audiences will come… — 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… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
This is a tradition of resistance to the term that's as old as the term itself, especially because that term has been… — 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… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
There are records I'll listen to one time and zero in on what's happening, and then I'll listen again to something I… — Vijay Iyer Copy Share Image
It doesn't matter if it's jazz or not. It's about how we listen, how we interact, how we guide our attention when… — 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
