“Love in Exile” by Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, & Shahzad Ismaily

Get ready for gorgeous, spiritual improvisational jazz.

Hello! 😊👋

Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!

Today’s album is gorgeous improvisational jazz that becomes its own living organism.

Genre: Jazz, Experimental

Label: Verve

Release Date: March 24, 2023

Vibe: 🫶

Some jazz records bowl you over with their dynamism and bombast, while others take a far more minimalist approach. They use subtle, complex patterns of repetition and give-and-take to build an emotional eloquence out of simple ingredients. Love in Exile, a collaboration between Grammy winner Arooj Aftab, pianist/composer Vijay Iyer, and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, takes three elements—voice, keys, and strings—and weaves them into an incredibly textured tapestry of international tradition and cosmic jazz influences.

As per the group, the album “was recorded live in a New York City studio with minimal editing,” a revelation that only makes the precise nature of the musical conversation between them all the more impressive. Consider the piano loops on “To Remain/To Return,” which begins delicately but then mutates into something more akin to a snake coiling tighter and tighter around its prey. When Arooj’s vocals set in, they quickly fill in the empty spaces left behind with notes of unease and quiet despair, fueling her performance with nods to her Pakistani heritage referenced in her previous work.

Jazz improvisation often comes with a looseness that makes the structure feel less than tidy. Love in Exile is anything but messy, however. The precision from Aftab, Iyer, and Ismaily brings about a breathtaking symbiosis that’s so rare in free-form music-making.

👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈

Got thoughts on this album? Did you love it? Sound off in the comments.