TIGRAM HAMASYAN

• Reduced mobility

The Call Within

Mixing cultures and musical languages has been a constant in the career of Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan, who at the tender age of 19 won the Thelonious Monk Piano Competition and came second in the Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition, both in 2006. Looking beyond the glitter of his early accolades, his music is a blend of blood and intuition, race and skill, and in which American jazz classics, Armenian folk and even some progressive rock and metal influences have played an important role. Echoes of Chick Corea, Avet Terterian and Black Sabbath resonating in the same discourse? Is that even possible? In his hands, it is.

As a teenager, Hamasyan learned the ropes on the stages of California to whence he had returned in 2013 after a few years in his native country. Today he is one of the most recognisable and unique jazz pianists of the 21st century. A star in his own right. His latest work, StandArt (2022), is his own personal reinterpretation of standards from the American songbook of the 1920s to the 1950s. Tunes by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Parker and Jerome Kern run through his filter, accompanied by bassist Matt Brewer, drummer Justin Brown, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and guest saxophonists Joshua Redman and Mark Turner.