Recording of the Week, Tigran Hamasyan, 'StandArt'

Tigran Hamasyan is hardly the most straightforward jazz pianist out there; with a back-catalogue consisting almost entirely of original pieces and extreme reinterpretations of folksongs from his native Armenia, he’s developed one of the most recognisable voices in contemporary jazz piano as well as a unique compositional style. Originally born and raised in Gyumri – one of the largest metropolitan areas in Armenia and formerly Leninakan, Armenian USSR – Tigran moved to Los Angeles for a brief spell when he was still a teenager, recording his debut album World Passion in 2013 at the age of 18. It was during this time that Tigran spent more time back in his home country, developing a new love for its folk music traditions, integrating these melodies further into his improvisations with jazz groups. With ten studio albums now under his belt, this year’s Hamasyan offering of StandArt is the first time he’s released an entire collection of American standards; though don’t be fooled, this isn’t Tigran playing it safe, there’s still much of that same signature style on display here.

If you’re familiar with Tigran Hamasyan’s music, you probably wouldn’t think of him as the first choice to cover traditional American jazz music; just listen to a tune like ‘Entertain Me’ from 2015’s Mockroot, or ‘Levitation 21’ from 2020’s The Call Within, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of the far-out sounds bouncing around in Tigran’s head. For piano-music that's so percussively-driven, he’s even been embraced by fans of modern metal – The Call Within actually featured a guest spot from Tosin Abasi, eight-string guitarist of heavy metal fusion band Animals as Leaders – as well as leaning into odd-metered time on top of dense harmony. The metal comparison rings true, too; one of Tigran’s first musical aspirations was to be a thrash metal guitarist (you and me both!). All this is to say that by Tigran’s standards (ha!), there’s only a certain amount of ‘straight-ahead’ you can fit into this guy’s music.

It’s Elmo Hope’s ‘De-Dah’ that opens the album, which amongst the dizzy rhythms actually manages to retain a lot of the tune’s original character, while also meshing quite nicely with Tigran’s usual style of playing with its heavily rhythmic piano lines. Meanwhile, Richard Rodger’s ‘I Didn’t Know What Time It Was’ – famously performed by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra among many others – has a pseudo-nu jazz swagger to it, Tigran taking the lead with lyrical piano lines before the tune develops into more discordant, unpredictable rhythms that almost mirror a hard rock breakdown. Even the improvisatory passages on this tune are a bit of a rhythmic head-scratcher, yet by sheer will the trio manage to stick tightly in-time with one another. 'When a Woman Loves a Man' features similarly spirited bursts of improvisation, Tigran executing some real keyboard acrobatics while still playing off drummer Justin Brown and bassist Matt Brewer's rhythms.

No Tigran Hamasyan record has had quite the same line-up, and this time around he’s playing with an entirely different ensemble – for StandArt he’s assembled a core trio with Brewer and Brown, as well as the handful of guest musicians appearing throughout the record. The Jerome Kern classic ‘All the Things You Are’ is one of the more contemplative tracks, a duet with saxophonist Mark Turner who brings some soft tones to Tigran’s sparse, sprinkled piano parts, while ‘I Should Care’ also takes the form of a duo with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire; Akinmusire appears again on ‘Invasion During an Operetta’, an improvised piece that ends up being the only tune on the album that isn’t a standard. Elsewhere, Tigran treats Charlie Parker’s ‘Big Foot’ to some more modern off-kilter harmony, with another saxophonist – Joshua Redman, no less – taking on Bird’s parts.

If you’re after faithful recreations of your favourite old standards, perhaps Tigran Hamasyan isn’t the best person to ask, but he’s certainly going to offer some of the most radical reworkings of the American Songbook you’ll have heard. This is a pianist who’s made much of his career out of heavily liberal reinterpretations of old songs – of a very different musical tradition, mind – and has composed some of the more boundary-pushing jazz pieces going today. With that in mind, StandArt makes for an endlessly entertaining listen.