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Tag: Vijay Iyer

Adam O’Farrill’s ELEPHANT Makes Music You Won’t Forget

Published 4 September, 2026 By John Chacona

Adam O’Farrill is sweating out a deadline for a commissioned piece. “It’s hard, but you have to make it work,” he said about sitting down to write. “You have to do it in the hotel. You have to do it on the road. You don’t always have a piano, which is hard, but you know, you make it work.”

The commission isn’t due until February, but O’Farrill is a busy guy. I spoke with him Wednesday, hours after returning from Japan, and two days before embarking on a tour that will bring him and his band ELEPHANT to BOP STOP on Wednesday, Sept. 9 in what is to these ears one of the most anticipated concerts of the year.

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Unclassifiable Affections Drive Drummer Dan Weiss’ Quartet

Published 10 June, 2025 By John Chacona
Dan Weiss Quartet

Dan Weiss is a no-compromises guy. He doesn’t jog occasionally for his health; he trains hard and races. He turned an interest in South Asian music into a decades-long immersion with tabla master Samir Chatterjee. When I suggested to the drummer last week that he struck me as slightly obsessive, his response was unequivocal: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Totally!”

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Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Nov. 9-15

Published 9 November, 2023 By John Chacona
Emily Kuhn
photocredit: Zack Sievers

The Bay City Rollers didn’t make the Rock Hall this year, but here at Countdown, their most famous lyric line resonates:: “S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, night!” That’s the night when jazz fans in NEO have some difficult decisions to make, but with three great shows in Cleveland and Akron, there are no wrong answers–and we’re here to help.

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Exile on East Boulevard: Arooj Aftab, Shazad Ismaily and Vijay Iyer Bring Magic To CMA

Published 2 October, 2023 By John Chacona
Love In Exile

Someone once said that all music, even at its most abstract, is about something, and that is the passage of time. That might be, but there are musicians who can transcend time to enter other dimensions in music. Vocalist Arooj Aftab, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and pianist Vijay Iyer who, as Love In Exile, will come to the Cleveland Museum Of Art Wednesday, are among them.

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Countdown: Your Guide To Jazz in NEO, Sept. 27-Oct. 4

Published 28 September, 2023 By John Chacona

Collective action is on the calendar for the next week beginning with the monthly concert by the NEO composers mob Third Law Collective, a fusion-y three-way courtesy of guitarist Oz Noy with bassist Jimmy Haslip and force-of-nature drummer Dennis Chambers and concluding next Tuesday with a New Ghosts-sponsored performance (and that’s precisely what it will be), by DIOR STAPLER, a group that bears an uncanny resemblance to Eurojazz agents provocateurs Die Hochstapler. New Wednesday’s Cleveland Museum of Art concert by Love In Exile (Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily) will get a full preview on Monday. Are you ready?

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