Into the mystic
A maximalist uncompromising vision. But it’s what you expect from the extraordinary Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan in what may be his magnum opus. He’s not in the business of leaving you short changed.
A long way off from only playing jazz standards this is heavy in ritual and rites, ancient mysticism and more.
Tigran is brilliant live. I would say his chops and imaginative power are up there with some of the greatest most risk taking contemporary jazz pianists - Brad Mehldau, Aaron Parks, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Django Bates.
That's not to say I understand much of the back story on this album - that's for future life anthropology, ancient philosophy classes and deep study! Ah, to be an anchorite...
... or maybe not. But the politics of the region are familiar to anyone who watches the news. In September 2023, Azerbaijan took over Armenian territory. The entire population was expelled from the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of what the European Parliament called an "ethnic cleansing". Tigran sees a curating of the ancient traditions of the Caucasus given such conflict as vital.
Album personnel include Tigran, singer Areni Agbabian, bassist Marc Karapetian and drummer Nate Wood playing the leader's compositions.
Not afraid to rock out ('Blood of an Innocent Is Spilled') or hang out with the angels - (the seraphic 'The Bird of a Thousand Voices') this is a reimagining of a traditional Armenian tale, an ancient firebird story and is nationalistic in the sense that it is a proud tribute to Armenian heritage. However, it works beyond such priorities and is instead humanistic especially if you know little about the local tensions. But it isn't at all for the easily duped or for that matter pearl clutching wallflowers.
You can feel if not understand all that the symbolism is leading you towards - a sensory overload.
I have only seen Tigran play once at the South Bank Centre and interviewed him some years later circa Luys i Luso (ECM) which explained a little more of what he is like - read that piece run on the LondonJazzNews website:
What Tigran sees Armenian music and jazz as sharing in common illuminates a good deal of the sheer commitment demonstrated by all the musicians on the album [Luys i Luso]. “It’s the soul of the music. You can’t hear it without seeing the mountains, seeing the people, listening to the people. Everything is connected. We can break it down into modes and specific ornamentation and technical concerns but the soul of it makes it distinctive. It taught me a lot about what my values are, my spirituality in my life right now. It made a big impact on me. It was sort of meant to happen. I always thought when I would get to this stage my life would change – and it has.” (Phone interview: 2015)
Jazz-rock fantasia and edgy keyboards
When you strip away the ancient legends the album is something of a jazz-rock demonstration of some clout ingeniously counterbalanced by the most tender high-end tinkling and for extra value spooky vocalisations that is far from twee and more like something Umberto Eco channelled in The Name of the Rose. That's in the sense of where theological, philosophical, scholarly and historical perspectives come together a certain spell of incantation and inordinate power is achieved. Oh and all the Christmases of a certain kind of ''metal/prog'' rocker may have just turned up together given the massive welly Nate Wood contributes so exhilaratingly partly via what some vloggers have identified as ''quintuplet swing.''
What to play next heading to haunts of ancient peace
All this transports me totally - inspired, inevitably when I turn the record off I think of Keith Jarrett playing Gurdjieff - it's a special day when a work sends you again to Sacred Hymns (1980, ECM) - not that it's meant to at all and yet it makes sense and yet Jarrett's work is hugely in contrast. Such a rara avis. SG
Tigran is playing the Cadogan Hall on 17 November during this year's EFG London Jazz Festival.
