Tweet
THE BRIGHT NEW ARMENIAN PIANO STAR OPENS THE LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL
tert.am
08.11.12
Tigran Hamasyan is a brilliant jazz pianist who is clearly on the
rise - for one thing, like many a star before him, he has dropped
his surname, and is now, according to his latest record The Fable,
simply Tigran...
One reason he became addicted to the acoustic piano as a child was that
there were so many blackouts in his native Gyumri in Armenia, and it
was something he could play by candlelight. When he was 18 months old,
in December 1988, there was a terrible earthquake in the region.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia went to war with neighboring
Azerbaijan over disputed territory and there was a blockade.
Tigran's parents - his father was a jeweller and his mother a clothing
designer - would queue at five in the morning for hours for bread of
dubious quality. "When the electricity came on, my sister would start
crying as it was so unusual," he recalls. The first music he fell in
love with in the middle of this post-apocalyptic atmosphere was heavy
metal, and he says he still loves Meshuggar, the Swedish Death Metal
band (authors of "the heaviest songs ever written - rhythmically,
it's insane") as much as Ravel or Thelonious Monk.
He was enrolled at a classical school aged five. "For years it was
just a chore. My mum made me practise, but as soon she turned away
I started improvising and coming up with cheesy songs." While most
classical musicians don't improvise "it was my thing, I didn't even
know what jazz was. For me improvising is the deepest music, it's where
everything starts." In his teens, a jazz-loving uncle introduced him
to pianists like Fats Waller. Tigran has a hand-span which reaches
from C to the E flat an octave-and-a-bit above, which makes it that
much easier to play the minor, melancholy chords that infuse his music.
When he was 16, his parents moved to Los Angeles to give their two
children (Tigran's sister is a painter and sculptor) better artistic
opportunities. Tigran began to win a series of piano competitions
and met saxophonist Ben Wendell and drummer Nate Wood, who still play
with him today...
His last album The Fable is mainly solo piano, with snatches of
singing and humming, and is an immensely poised masterwork with
sparkling melodies, veering between introspective romanticism and
expansive virtuosity. Of all his albums, this one has the most of his
native Armenian influence. There's a take of the standard "Someday
My Prince Will Come" and an Armenian medieval hymn, with most of
the rest being new compositions, improvising around Armenian scales,
which gives the whole a certain mysterious East-West quality.
Of his spiritual search he says 'Every time I think about it I realize
I know nothing.'
Geoff Dyer in his jazz book But Beautiful suggests that the future
of jazz will come from such fusions of culture, and this is an
exemplary specimen. One of the most enigmatically beautiful tracks is
"The Spinner", a hauntingly melodic composition by the mystic (and
conman, depending on your point of view) George Gurdjieff arranged by
Thomas de Hartmann. Gurdjieff, the author of Meetings With Remarkable
Men, would hum his tunes to the pianist Hartmann; for Tigran it is
"absolutely timeless, incredible music." Tigran says he believes in
God, and like his musical "gods" Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter is
also interested in Buddhism. Of his spiritual search he says "Every
time I think about it I realize I know nothing."
Now he is becoming an international star, he is feted back in Armenia,
but is depressed by the Armenian pop music - "Some of the songs
include Armenian instruments, but it's really rubbish." He does rate
the other best known musician in Armenia, Djivan Gasparian (who plays
the oboe-like duduk), who he says has "bardic" qualities.
By Peter Culshaw for The Arts Desk
tert.am
08.11.12
Tigran Hamasyan is a brilliant jazz pianist who is clearly on the
rise - for one thing, like many a star before him, he has dropped
his surname, and is now, according to his latest record The Fable,
simply Tigran...
One reason he became addicted to the acoustic piano as a child was that
there were so many blackouts in his native Gyumri in Armenia, and it
was something he could play by candlelight. When he was 18 months old,
in December 1988, there was a terrible earthquake in the region.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia went to war with neighboring
Azerbaijan over disputed territory and there was a blockade.
Tigran's parents - his father was a jeweller and his mother a clothing
designer - would queue at five in the morning for hours for bread of
dubious quality. "When the electricity came on, my sister would start
crying as it was so unusual," he recalls. The first music he fell in
love with in the middle of this post-apocalyptic atmosphere was heavy
metal, and he says he still loves Meshuggar, the Swedish Death Metal
band (authors of "the heaviest songs ever written - rhythmically,
it's insane") as much as Ravel or Thelonious Monk.
He was enrolled at a classical school aged five. "For years it was
just a chore. My mum made me practise, but as soon she turned away
I started improvising and coming up with cheesy songs." While most
classical musicians don't improvise "it was my thing, I didn't even
know what jazz was. For me improvising is the deepest music, it's where
everything starts." In his teens, a jazz-loving uncle introduced him
to pianists like Fats Waller. Tigran has a hand-span which reaches
from C to the E flat an octave-and-a-bit above, which makes it that
much easier to play the minor, melancholy chords that infuse his music.
When he was 16, his parents moved to Los Angeles to give their two
children (Tigran's sister is a painter and sculptor) better artistic
opportunities. Tigran began to win a series of piano competitions
and met saxophonist Ben Wendell and drummer Nate Wood, who still play
with him today...
His last album The Fable is mainly solo piano, with snatches of
singing and humming, and is an immensely poised masterwork with
sparkling melodies, veering between introspective romanticism and
expansive virtuosity. Of all his albums, this one has the most of his
native Armenian influence. There's a take of the standard "Someday
My Prince Will Come" and an Armenian medieval hymn, with most of
the rest being new compositions, improvising around Armenian scales,
which gives the whole a certain mysterious East-West quality.
Of his spiritual search he says 'Every time I think about it I realize
I know nothing.'
Geoff Dyer in his jazz book But Beautiful suggests that the future
of jazz will come from such fusions of culture, and this is an
exemplary specimen. One of the most enigmatically beautiful tracks is
"The Spinner", a hauntingly melodic composition by the mystic (and
conman, depending on your point of view) George Gurdjieff arranged by
Thomas de Hartmann. Gurdjieff, the author of Meetings With Remarkable
Men, would hum his tunes to the pianist Hartmann; for Tigran it is
"absolutely timeless, incredible music." Tigran says he believes in
God, and like his musical "gods" Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter is
also interested in Buddhism. Of his spiritual search he says "Every
time I think about it I realize I know nothing."
Now he is becoming an international star, he is feted back in Armenia,
but is depressed by the Armenian pop music - "Some of the songs
include Armenian instruments, but it's really rubbish." He does rate
the other best known musician in Armenia, Djivan Gasparian (who plays
the oboe-like duduk), who he says has "bardic" qualities.
By Peter Culshaw for The Arts Desk