Unclassified Affections [CD]

Thereupon is the long-anticipated return of the jazz supergroup Fieldwork, which has been described by NPR as a "power trio for the new century." They are a long-standing collective of three celebrated innovators of contemporary music: alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, pianist Vijay Iyer, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Since their last release - Door in 2008 - all three musicians have climbed to the pinnacle of the jazz and improvised music scene, receiving universal critical acclaim and top awards such as MacArthur Fellowships and a Pulitzer Prize and have each individually helped reshape the language of creative music over the last two decades. As a group, they continue to explode the possibilities of collective improvisation. Fieldwork's music reflects the sum part of jazz, modern composition, African and South Asian music, underground hip-hop, electronica, and the influential music of Chicago's AACM, all funneled through a collective ethos. Their musical imagination is far ranging, with rigor, daring, and a unique aesthetic palette. Together they conjure a dense, visceral musical world, tightly unified and high-impact, with a mysterious inner logic. The performances on Thereupon captures their state-of-the art interplay; they listen deeply, responding to one another with a rare intensity that blurs the lines between composition and improvisation. With this new chapter, Fieldwork reaffirm their role as one of the era's most vital experimental units.