The pianist and composer Vijay Iyer frames his new trio recording, Break Stuff, around the idea of musical breaks: "a break in music is still music: a span of time in which to act," he writes. Formally, he's referring to breakbeats and other musical breakdowns, but more generally, Iyer's trio exploits opportunities to rupture convention. The configuration featuring Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums, together now for over 11 years, has made an art of collective rhythmic risk-taking, whether on Iyer's compositions or while nodding to disruptive musical heroes like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Detroit techno DJ Robert Hood.
Jazz Night In America visits the Temple of Dendur, the Egyptian temple which resides within a massive room in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, to take in a set from the Vijay Iyer Trio.
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