Vijay Iyer's 'Tirtha' in San Francisco

Vijay Iyer’s final night of residency revisits his recent trio Tirtha, a project described by NPR as “a distillation of jazz improvisation, creative conversation and Carnatic music from India.” Originally coming together in 2007, when Iyer was asked to perform at a commemoration of India’s 60th year of independence from British rule, the trio (comprised of two native born Indians and one Indian-American musician) reflects the present day Indian diaspora and its vital, converging influences of East and West. With a name that translates from Sanskrit as “a place of transition,” Tirtha includes electric guitarist Prasanna, a specialist of the South Indian Carnatic tradition known for his work with saxophonist George Brooks and bass master Victor Wooten, and virtuoso tabla drummer Nitin Mitta, who perfoms with Indo-Canadian vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia and many major Hindustani and Carnatic musicians. The trio’s self-titled 2011 ACT Music release was described by the All Music Guide as “a triumph.” In an interview with NPR, Iyer described this unique group’s dynamic this way, “We have this larger sense of connection that becomes the backdrop to the collaboration. But the collaboration is whatever we were able to come up with. It's not about trying to be in a tradition or out of a tradition. It's just to work from what we know and do something organic."