Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker, and multicultural gateway,” composer and pianist Vijay Iyer is one of the leading music-makers of his generation. Iyer returns, following his Harlem Stage commissioned work, Holding It Down, to guest curate and perform in Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill. Iyer leads a stellar ensemble, including drummer Nasheet Waits, trumpet player Milena Casado, saxophonist Mark Shim, bassists Devon Gates and Reggie Workman, flutist Nicole Mitchell, vibraphonist Yuhan Su, and others, through his arrangements of compositions by his friend and hero, the vastly influential jazz piano legend Andrew Hill.

Andrew Hill’s album Black Fire, released on Blue Note Records in 1964, was a “revelatory vision of jazz — and impacted generations of progressive pianists” (TIDAL Magazine). Iyer reflects on Black Fire, “there’s so much wildness going on inside of it…You could not write that down, whatever that is. It’s just in its own universe” (TIDAL Magazine).