Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer might just be the kind of badass we need in our lives. Not only has he garnered numerous citations--DownBeat's International Critics' Poll awarded him Jazz Artist of the Year and Pianist of the Year, to name but two--but he's also slated to become a professor at Harvard University soon. Lest we forget, too, he just won that John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.
