Tigran Hamasyan StandArt Limited Vinyl LP
Overview:
‘Hamasyan puts so much emphasis on mood and melody that it’s easy to miss…, how virtuosic the playing is.’ – DownBeat
‘Tigran has found a way to keep improvisation fresh and lyrical. Other jazz musicians would be wise to take note.’ – Guardian
‘There are many brilliant and perfectly finished young jazz pianists around, but Hamasyan stands out because he has something important and urgent to say.’ – Daily Telegraph
Nonesuch Records releases pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan’s StandArt, his first album of American standards. StandArt includes songs from the 1920s through the 1950s, by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Parker, Jerome Kern, David Raksin, and others; it also includes a piece Hamasyan improvised with his bandmates – bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Justin Brown – and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, who is featured on two of the album’s tracks. Other special guests include saxophonist and label-mate Joshua Redman on Charlie Parker’s ‘Big Foot’, as well as saxophonist Mark Turner on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s ‘All the Things You Are’. The complete track list is below.
Produced by Hamasyan and recorded last spring in Los Angeles, StandArt is Hamasyan’s first release of American music, having previously only released original compositions and traditional Armenian music. “With this record, I really wanted to apply different techniques and ideas I’ve developed over the years to a repertoire that I finally had an opportunity to re-visit, and to send a message that I really appreciate this music and am thankful for it,” he says. “I love these compositions and melodies so much that, to me, it’s like Armenian folk music. As an immigrant – an Armenian-American – I relate to these composers and musicians from various backgrounds who have that kind of history, a dark history, but managed to succeed in an embodiment of freedom. In that way, I feel like I want to be part of this, to find something in the tradition of where I came from.
Featured Tracks:
1. De-Dah
2. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
3. All the Things You Are (feat. Mark Turner)
4. Big Foot (feat. Joshua Redman)
5. When a Woman Loves a Man
6. Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise
7. I Should Care (feat. Ambrose Akinmusire)
8. Invasion During an Operetta (feat. Ambrose Akinmusire)
9. Laura
Release Date: 24 September 2021
Format: LP Double Vinyl
Label: Decca
£29.99
Release Date: 28 August 2020
Format: LP Vinyl
Label: Nonesuch
£19.99
