Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer loses Grammy

US-based Indian jazz pianist Vijay Iyer lost the Grammy for best jazz instrumental album, individual or group at the 53rd edition of the awards.

US-based Indian jazz pianist Vijay Iyer lost the Grammy for best jazz instrumental album, individual or group at the 53rd edition of the awards.

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Iyer along with his team members bassist Stephen Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore, popularly known as Vijay Iyer Trio, were nominated for their album Historicity, but lost out to James Moody (Moody 4B) at the gala event at the Staples Center, Los Angeles on Sunday night.

The other nominations included John Beasley (Positootly!), Clayton Brothers (The New Song And Dance), and Danilo Perez (Providencia).

Historicity is Iyer's 13th album and has already won many accolades. It was ranked number one jazz album of 2009 by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and National Public Radio.

Born and brought up in New York City, Iyer is from the family of Tamil immigrants who moved to the US in 1960s. He has been learning music from the age of three. Trained in the Western classical, he began playing the piano by ear in his childhood, and has mostly learned the instrument on his own.

He studied science and joined the PhD programme in physics at the University of California, Berkley. However, he pursued his jazz practice interests side by side.

Right now he is a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, the New York University, the School for Improvisational Music as well as The New School.

Over the years, Iyer has worked with other Indian musicians, including Karsh Kale, Tavleen Singh, Suphla, Trichy Sankaran and Umayalpuram K Sivaraman.