Tigran Hamasyan – StandArt (Vinyl)

Pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan’s album “StandArt” – his first album of American standards – features 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 tracks on the album. Other special guests include saxophonist and labelmate Joshua Redman on Charlie Parker’s “Big Foot” and saxophonist Mark Turner on Jerome Kern’s and Oscar Hammerstein’s “All The Things You Are.”

StandArt was produced by Hamasyan and recorded last spring in Los Angeles. It is Hamasyan’s first release of American music, having previously released only original compositions and traditional Armenian music. “With this record, I wanted to apply different techniques and ideas I’ve developed over the years to a repertoire I was finally able to revisit, and send a message that I really appreciate this music and am grateful for it,” he says. “I love these compositions and melodies so much that they’re like Armenian folk music to me. As an immigrant – an Armenian American – I can relate to these composers and musicians from different backgrounds who have this kind of history, a dark history, but have managed to embody freedom. In that way, I want to be a part of it and find something in the tradition of my homeland.”