Tigran Hamasyan: Manifeste

Tigran Hamasyan began playing piano at age three and pursued music systematically from age six. At nine, he fully devoted himself to jazz and soon realized that Armenian folk motifs were as essential a source of inspiration as recordings of American jazz legends — and began weaving them into his own compositions.

His early career is defined by a series of competition successes: at sixteen, he triumphed at Jazz à Juan Révélations and at the Montreux festival (Critics' Prize); at nineteen, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute competition in Los Angeles. Since his debut World Passion, he has released ten studio albums that move between jazz and Armenian folk music with occasional ventures into progressive rock. He has worked with Verve and ECM, and now releases on the Nonesuch label — including the album StandArt (interpretations of jazz standards by Jerome Kern, Charlie Parker, and others) and the conceptual double album The Bird of a Thousand Voices, inspired by an Armenian folk tale.

His current album Manifeste was created over two years in various studios around the world. Hamasyan moves toward a denser sound at the intersection of jazz and progressive rock, incorporating metal-tinged guitar, traditional Armenian instruments, and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir.