Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith create powerful, uncategorizable duets filled with subtle emotion, mystery, and spiritual intensity. Their music reveals the improvisational magic of the duo, the expressive individuality of each participant, and the ways in which they can – as Smith says – “merge into a single wave or a single voice.” Iyer refers to Smith as his “hero, friend, and teacher,” having played in the AACM icon’s “Golden Quartet” from 2005 to 2012. Their duo, celebrated with the 2016 album A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke, returns in 2025 with Defiant Life, shaped by their shared sorrow and faith in human possibility.
