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TIGRAN HAMASYAN'S GLOBAL VIEW OF JAZZ
Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/01/tigran-himasyans-global-.html
Jan 14 2011
Given how Tigran Hamasyan's career began, it might have been more
surprising to learn the 23-year-old pianist didn't one day sign to
a major label.
With his fourth album, "A Fable," due next month (his first for
Universal France) the Armenian-born Hamasyan seems on the verge of a
U.S. breakthrough heading into Saturday's show at the Broad Stage in
Santa Monica. A winner of the Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano competition
in 2006, his career got off to an auspicious start well before that
with a performance at the first International Jazz Festival in Yeravan.
"It was a huge stage," Hamasyan said of the 1998 performance, which
marked his live debut. "I was 11. It got a little crazy after that."
"Crazy" in this case constituted splitting time between school
and smoky clubs at a very young age (much to his father's initial
chagrin), which led to more performances on the European festival
circuit. These led to Hamasyan meeting idols such as Herbie Hancock,
Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, artists whose adventurous musical choices
inspired Hamasyan to look further inward for inspiration.
"I learned how to improvise through jazz music . . . For me it's the
most incredible improvised music that exists. But the vocabulary of it
doesn't necessarily have to be the Western vocabulary," Hamasyan said.
"For me, that's where Armenian folk music comes in, that vocabulary."
After his parents relocated to Southern California, Hamasyan studied
at USC before releasing three albums on a French indie label that
found Hamasyan exploring the intersections of jazz, classical and
rock with sounds taken from his native Armenia. Now living in New
York, the pianist opted to record a solo album with "A Fable," and
the results are complex yet immediately approachable.
While more introverted than his earlier recordings, which at various
points included contributions from Kneebody's Ben Wendel and Nate Wood,
the willingness to take chances remains. A delicately whistled melody
weaves around Hamasyan's spiraling piano in "What the Waves Brought,"
while the intricate "Samsara" shows his classical influences. Gently
sung poetry from Armenia's Hovhannes Tumanyan and a cover of a
traditional Armenian hymn mark the album's global roots, yet these
elements merge seamlessly into a flickering cover of "Someday My
Prince Will Come."
If it sounds like Hamasyan isn't an artist who gets hung up on genres
or labels, it's no accident. "I don't pay attention to what's jazz,"
Hamasyan said. "I don't categorize really."
-- Chris Barton
From: A. Papazian
Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/01/tigran-himasyans-global-.html
Jan 14 2011
Given how Tigran Hamasyan's career began, it might have been more
surprising to learn the 23-year-old pianist didn't one day sign to
a major label.
With his fourth album, "A Fable," due next month (his first for
Universal France) the Armenian-born Hamasyan seems on the verge of a
U.S. breakthrough heading into Saturday's show at the Broad Stage in
Santa Monica. A winner of the Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano competition
in 2006, his career got off to an auspicious start well before that
with a performance at the first International Jazz Festival in Yeravan.
"It was a huge stage," Hamasyan said of the 1998 performance, which
marked his live debut. "I was 11. It got a little crazy after that."
"Crazy" in this case constituted splitting time between school
and smoky clubs at a very young age (much to his father's initial
chagrin), which led to more performances on the European festival
circuit. These led to Hamasyan meeting idols such as Herbie Hancock,
Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, artists whose adventurous musical choices
inspired Hamasyan to look further inward for inspiration.
"I learned how to improvise through jazz music . . . For me it's the
most incredible improvised music that exists. But the vocabulary of it
doesn't necessarily have to be the Western vocabulary," Hamasyan said.
"For me, that's where Armenian folk music comes in, that vocabulary."
After his parents relocated to Southern California, Hamasyan studied
at USC before releasing three albums on a French indie label that
found Hamasyan exploring the intersections of jazz, classical and
rock with sounds taken from his native Armenia. Now living in New
York, the pianist opted to record a solo album with "A Fable," and
the results are complex yet immediately approachable.
While more introverted than his earlier recordings, which at various
points included contributions from Kneebody's Ben Wendel and Nate Wood,
the willingness to take chances remains. A delicately whistled melody
weaves around Hamasyan's spiraling piano in "What the Waves Brought,"
while the intricate "Samsara" shows his classical influences. Gently
sung poetry from Armenia's Hovhannes Tumanyan and a cover of a
traditional Armenian hymn mark the album's global roots, yet these
elements merge seamlessly into a flickering cover of "Someday My
Prince Will Come."
If it sounds like Hamasyan isn't an artist who gets hung up on genres
or labels, it's no accident. "I don't pay attention to what's jazz,"
Hamasyan said. "I don't categorize really."
-- Chris Barton
From: A. Papazian