From the opening rumbles of Vijay Iyer's piano and mutters of disbelief from Wadada Leo Smith's trumpet, to the funereal closer with its palpable atmosphere of loss and distant synthesized war drums, "Defiant Life" draws immense power from its quietness. You've heard of passive resistance? This is quiet defiance. Charles Lloyd used the word last year to title his layered ballad "Defiant, Tender Warrior," understanding the value of patience. With benefit of hindsight to 1969, the year after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, "In a Silent Way" starts to look like Miles Davis saying the same thing.
"Defiant Life" directly references another assassination with "Floating River Requiem (for Patrice Lumumba)," a ghostly, plaintive tribute to the Congolese leader who was slain in 1961 by Belgian stooges before the CIA could execute its own hit. But the album feels much more personal than political. Iyer often plays the part of nature -- dripping water, a flowing stream, wind blowing. He even uses electronic bass keys to generate a subtle feeling like the very Earth's slow respiration. Smith, meanwhile, acts as the lonesome human, and we clearly hear the pain and sorrow that have fallen on his wondering head. The duo's final fade sounds very much like "You've lost us," making a far stronger indictment than angry shouts and fists in the air.
The best track is "Sumud," whose extreme sound field creates the effect of pulling us back so we can see/hear our entire world and our place in it (represented by a prayerful Smith), as stars twinkle all around. Stop listening to yourself and others, it seems to say, and listen Beyond. Your survival depends on it.
A special advantage of "Sumud" accrues to listeners who have contracted tinnitus. Iyer's ultrahigh electronic drone may harmonize with the ringing in your ears to exciting effect, and make you evaluate whether, in its milder forms at least, tinnitus is not a blessing -- a way of hearing the legendary music of the spheres. Thelonious Monk's middle name can't have been a complete accident.