Vijay’s music and persona embody our vision of a globalized musical community. He is a jazz star whose music combines influences from various cultural and stylistic backgrounds. The American-born son of Indian immigrants was exposed to Carnatic classical and religious music from an early age on. Especially his usage of polyrhythms leads back to his Indian heritage. One of his main influences has been the music of alto saxophonist Steve Coleman and one can also hear traits of classical composers such as Reich or Debussy, as well as rock and pop music in Vijay’s manifold compositions. In addition to that, he derives influences from African drumming, dub and electronics.

On the piano he was mainly self-taught. He is also a polymath who went to Yale College and the University of Berkeley, CA earning a B.A. and M.A. in math and physics, as well as a PhD in Technology and the Arts. The science magazine Seed chose him as one of their nine “Revolutionary Minds”. As a musicologist he wrote for renowned magazines. His interesting background provides a unique source of inspiration for his music.

Vijay is a pianist with a strong sense for composition, conceptualization and architecture. Iyer’s approach to harmony reveals his great attention to detail and is clearly influenced by the Steve Coleman School. His music is about life: emotionally compelling, grounded in groove, free from prejudice, rhythmically intricate, fluidly improvisational, yet uncannily orchestral. He is an innovator in texture, style and musical form. His repertoire includes original compositions as well as surprising covers. His current trio consists of his long-time colleagues Marcus Gilmore on drums and Stephan Crump on bass.

Highly acclaimed by the press, Vijay Iyer was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 and won the ECHO jazz award.
We at Indaba congratulate him for his outstanding achievements and thank him for contributing his precious music to our community. Thanks, Vijay.

It’s happening again… Come take a Walkabout with Indaba Music on May 18th!

Just like last year, we’re teaming up with startup tech companies all around New York City to welcome guests into our office space. Following a tour of the office, Indaba Music CEO JJ Rosen will give a brief overview of the Indaba Music business to attendees and co-founder Dan Zaccagnino will showcase some of Indaba’s newest products.

RSVP to our event to learn more and check out some more photos of our office below. 

As a bonus prize, both were included in a Kris Allen “The Vision of Love” Remix EP. The EP, out yesterday, is amazing. Check out all of the remixes on our contest page and click here to download the EP.

Watch the exclusive interview with DJ Reidiculous below!

The Used takes a moment to talk with Mantis about their latest release, Vulnerable, and how they use Indaba Music.

Be sure to check out dates for The Used on www.theused.net for their upcoming headlining tour!

Songtrust and Indaba recently partnered to find one promising songwriter to fly to New York to share an afternoon session with recording engineer, Zach Hancock. Songtrust uncovered over $2,000 in publishing royalties for the Grand Prize Winner, Daniel Snyder. (Note: This is money they found for him over-and-above his existing ASCAP affiliation.)

Above is an interview with Daniel during his conference with some industry heavyweights Justin Kalifowitz (President, Downtown Music Publishing Co-Founder, Songtrust), J.J. Rosen (CEO, Indaba Music Fmr. EVP, Commercial Music Group (Sony Music Entertainment) ) and Jeremy Yohai (Director of Writer Relations for Downtown Music Publishing and Songtrust) at the famed Downtown Studios.

• Are you missing out on royalties? Songtrust is offering 20% off the first year to Indaba Members! CLICK HERE to redeem this exclusive offer.

A Silent Film, one of Indaba Music’s latest and greatest members, stopped by our new office to perform two songs off their soon to be released album, Sand & Snow out 06/05/12.

In 2010, while on a transformative American tour, the band decided to relocate to Phoenix, Arizona. “We felt like we always had a kinship with America,” vocalist/pianist Robert Stevenson says of the creative benefit of the move. “Previously, I had been inspired by American writers, musicians, and filmmakers, but written everything in Oxford. Suddenly, we were flung into the eye of a cultural hurricane, travelling from state to state day after day – you couldn’t help but be inspired by this wealth of new experiences. We decided we had to stay here to capture this album.”

We’re happy that the guys took a day to come visit us in NYC to perform “Danny, Dakota and the Wishing Well” (above) and “Harbour Lights” (below). Enjoy the videos and check back soon for more videos from Suite268!

Every semester we hand select and invite a wonderful group of interns to come be a part of our team at the Indaba Music offices in New York City. These students are incredible and many have moved on to become permanent members of our team.

This crew is so amazing that two of them, Andreas Klein and Timo Vollbrecht, decided to write and perform a song just for Indaba Music! Check out the rest of the band below. 

Andreas Klein - drums

Timo Vollbrecht - saxophone

Keisuke Matsuno - guitar

Sam Anning - bass

As a follow-up to our Inaugural Industry Meetup post, we’re bringing you an incredible live video of a performance right from our very own office space! Old friends Jukebox the Ghost (Tommy Siegel, Jesse Kristin, Ben Thornewill) stopped by to kick off a our new monthly series. Little did we know they’d roll out with Whitney Houston’s classic, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).”

Enjoy!

Though we’ve recently moved our office, Suite 268, our performance space and loft in New York City, is still alive and thriving. We recently invited Rachel Yamagata to stop by the space to perform “You Won’t Let Me” and “Dealbreaker,” off of her new record, Chesapeake. Her voice is just incredible!

Read the exclusive on AOL Spinner.

We had to kick it off big with this first event so we invited old friends Jukebox the Ghost (Tommy Siegel, Jesse Kristin, Ben Thornewill) and our new neighbours Foursquare, Fueled, 20X200 and Clearspring.

We have some amazing footage from the stage coming your way but you can take a sneak peak by flipping through the photos below. Enjoy!