Embodied Cognition: The Music Within with Vijay Iyer

Let yourself be drawn into the world of one of the most prolific, shape- shifting presences in 21st century music. Vijay Iyer is a Grammy-nominated composer, pianist, bandleader, and the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University. He is a MacArthur Fellow, described by The New York Times as “a social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway.”

In a profound conversation, Vijay Iyer takes us on a journey of discovery, into what embodied cognition truly means and where music begins. He invites us to explore the extraordinary phenomenon of synchrony: how musicians lock into pulse together, and how an entire audience can exhale as one at the close of a performance.

Iyer speaks of live music as a form of ritual, a collective agreement to step out of everyday life and into something else, together. He also reflects with great warmth on his collaborations with artists such as the drummer Tyshawn Sorey and the legendary trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, describing the deep listening, humility, and compassion that make their music possible. He opens our eyes to think deeply about jazz, “not as style of music but an act of freedom.” Music, he insists, should truly be listened to as a human action, asking ourselves who made it, where they were, and how they found each other.

This episode is a powerful and loving reminder that music is, first and foremost, a live, shared, visceral, mutually embodied experience, and that within it lies the recognition of a deep longing we carry always: to come back to the experience of that timeless space where two souls meet in the act of listening.

LINKS & INFO:

https://vijay-iyer.com Instagram: @vijayiyer Latest releases: Sanctuary/Thereupon/DefiantLife/Compassion/Trouble/Love in Exile

In this episode you heard Vijay Iyer’s music from his albums “Compassion”, “Defiant Life” and briefly “Thereupon”

WHERE CAN I GET VIJAY IYER'S MUSIC?

https://linktr.ee/vijayiyer https://vijayiyer.bandcamp.com/ https://ecmrecords.com/artists/vijay-iyer/ https://www.schott-music.com/en/person/vijay-iyer#person_worklist

MUSIC COPYRIGHTS AND CREDITS

Album: “Compassion” by Vijay Iyer Trio: Vijay Iyer, Linda May-Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey (ECM Records, 2024) © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music. https://ecm.lnk.to/Compassion

Tracks from the Album Compassion© featured in this episode:

Overjoyed by Vijay Iyer Trio: Vijay Iyer, Linda May-Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey (ECM Records, 2024). © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

It Goes; by Vijay Iyer Trio: Vijay Iyer, Linda May-Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey (ECM Records, 2024). © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Ghostrumental; by Vijay Iyer Trio: Vijay Iyer, Linda May-Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey (ECM Records, 2024). © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Free Spirits/Drummers Song by Vijay Iyer Trio: Vijay Iyer, Linda May-Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey (ECM Records, 2024). © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Album: “Defiant Life” by Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith (ECM Records, 2025) © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music. https://ecm.lnk.to/DefiantLife

Tracks from the album “Defiant Life”© featured in this episode:

Sumud by Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith (ECM Records, 2025) © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Floating River Requiem (for Patrice Lumumba) by Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith (ECM Records, 2025) © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Procession: Defiant Life by Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith (ECM Records, 2025) © ECM Records GmbH, Under exclusive license to Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Embracing Difference from the Album “Thereupon” by Fieldwork: Steve Lehman, Vijay Iyer & Tyshawn Sorey. (PI Recordings, 2025). © Pi Recordings https://pirecordings.lnk.to/propaganda https://fieldworktheband.bandcamp.com/album/thereupon

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Faculty to Art and Science Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts Professor of African and African American Studies  Director of Graduate Studies (Fall 2025) Graduate Advisor in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry

https://music.fas.harvard.edu/people/vijay-iyer

Article mentioned in our conversation: Embodied Mind, Situated Cognition, and Expressive Microtiming in African-American Music Author(s): Vijay Iyer Source: Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Spring 2002), pp. 387-414 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/mp.2002.19.3.387 Accessed: 30-03-2017 21:59 UTC Link:https://cnmat.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/2002_Embodied-mind-situated-cognition-and-expressive-micro-timing-in-african-american-music.pdf