Recording: Vijay Iyer & Hafez Modirzadeh

Artist: Vijay Iyer & Hafez Modirzadeh

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at ImprovLab, University of Guelph (IF 2023 – Day 2), October 21, 2023.

Vijay Iyer & Hafez Modirzadeh - [excerpt]

A rare out-of-town day trip to hear some music out past the city limits gave a glimpse into goings-on out in Guelph, including the U of G's "brand new state-of-the-art" ImprovLab, which hosted some of the concerts in a full day's programming as part of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation's conference. The conference's closing performance was originally slated to be a duo between pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, but the latter's illness meant some last-minute organizational improvisation that saw saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh stepping in. The resulting set felt anything but thrown together, though, with striking coherence and excellent interplay between the pair, each finding space to dig into motifs and give the other room to stretch out.