2014 · Album
Wiring
Recorded 2013 · Intakt Records · Musicians: Oliver Lake (saxophone), Reggie Workman (bass), Andrew Cyrille (drums), Vijay Iyer (piano)
Three Voices, One Piano, Infinite Space
Lake, Workman, and Cyrille have built something that breathes on its own terms.
Wiring announces itself without fanfare. Oliver Lake's saxophone enters a space that Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman have already opened—no overture, no countdown. The drums are active but never loud, the bass is present without anchoring, and when Vijay Iyer's piano joins, he doesn't arrive as a guest but as someone who was already listening in the corner. The textures stay loose even when the playing tightens. Nothing here sounds rehearsed into submission.
This trio had already proven itself as a working ensemble—three players with decades of experience who'd learned to trust silence as much as sound. Bringing in Iyer for these sessions didn't require anyone to adjust their approach or prove anything. According to All About Jazz reviewer John Sharpe, Iyer "becomes an integral part of the outfit, whether stretching out simultaneously with the saxophonist, or comping energetically behind him." The point isn't that he fits in; it's that the four of them found something worth exploring together. Kevin Le Gendre wrote in Jazzwise that the Lake-Workman-Cyrille ensemble "is proving to be a stellar contemporary supergroup, evolving periodically by way of the addition of a guest pianist," and noted that Iyer "proves to be an effective collaborator on a set that has the strength of character one would expect from such illustrious names."
Wiring is solid work—music built on craft and ears rather than concept. It's the kind of album that doesn't demand your full attention but rewards it completely when you give it.
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