I just had the chance to listen to Aaron Parks' "Invisible Cinema",and Tigran Hamasyan's "Aratta Rebirth". I feel like these two albums tell a lot about young jazz musicians and their direction.. it seems like they are going in all sorts of direction, and there is more emphasis on your personality/influence than tradition. Musically I like what they are doing more than Taylor Eigsti, Hiromi or Eldar Djangirov.

Have you guys had a chance to listen to these two albums? what do you guys think?

I've heard both those albums, good playing and they are developing their own style. All these players are still quite young, early 20's to 30 so it will take time for them to mature.

Have a listen to a singer named Gretchen Parlato, she's had Aaron Parks, Taylor E and Gerald Clayton all play backup for her. I saw her live and actually had a private lesson with Taylor after the show.

Personally I prefer to hear the older players, Herbie, Keith J, Chick, Bobo Stenson, John Taylor. Their music is more thoughtful and deep.

Eldar has great technique but lacks the touch right now. Give him 10-20 years. Hiromi, of all jazz players now I think has the cleanest, best technique. I heard her on Marian Mcpartland's show, some songs I liked, (Blue in green) others I didn't.

A few other players I like:

Marcin Wasilewski, polish guy who played with Tomaz stanko.
Vassilis Tsaboropoulos, a Greek player. Quite unknown but check out his playing on Arild Andersen's Triangle ECM.

Phil Ware- Irish guy, plays soulful ballads.
E.S.T. - freshest, most innovative group in a long time. Very tragic what happened to Esbjorn.
Peter Martin, usually plays backup for Dianne Reeves, Chris Botti, has worked with Joshua Redman.


I'm not that into the Bad Plus for some reason. Brad Mehldau too, I don't find him that appealing. I've seen him live. He stretches out songs and goes in strange directions sometimes.

Unfortunately for jazz, it isn't a genre of music that is too popular now, so many of the young new players you have to search them out.

What do you think of Jamie Cullum? He's probably the new sensation. High energy, unique, quite a decent player.

I've taken a liking to Esperanza Spalding, beautiful bass playing and singing!

If you like the new younger pianist going in different directions then be sure to also check out Vijay Iyer and Matthew Shipp.

I like what I have heard of Vijay Iyer. He takes the music in a very refreshing direction.
I haven't checked out Aaron Parks too much yet but I will.

Stefano Bollani is my favorite of the younger players at the moment. He plays in so many different styles while still retaining his own sound.

There are a couple of excellent young British pianists worth checking out as well, Gwilym Simcock and Kit Downes both sound amazing.

There are certainly plenty of interesting things going on at the moment in the jazz piano world.

Yea, both Aaron Parks and Tigran Hamasyan are very young, and they certainly aren't afraid of showing their influences beyond jazz. Tigran was influenced by rocks band like Led Zepellin, and you can definitely hear that in his CD. I guess I can say the same for Invisible Cinema too.

What I like is the fact that they aren't afraid of doing all these things.. I know some of my teachers will probably say "this is not jazz!", but their music speaks to me more, because I am in their age group and I grew up listening to the kind of stuff they are listening to.

I haven't checked Vijay Iyer out, but this is like the 3rd time someone mentioned him, so I'll probably order his CD very soon.

I know there are a lot of jazz fans who say they are "stuck in the 50-60s" but for me I just love how diverse everything is right now. And I'd prefer hearing an original rather than hearing another rendition of solar or something(unless it's a really cool arrangement"

New York Winter Jazzfest, the state of jazz in 2010:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/arts/music/08jazzfest.html?ref=music

Check out Jamie Saft's site (not the Whoopie pie band).

It seems to me that the word jazz as a descriptive doesn't apply. Although I'm not opposed to what he (or others like him) does, I wonder why it would be considered jazz?

For the likes of Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding and such it's clear to me that they get a portion of their ideas from what most would consider the 'lineage' of jazz.

Nothing surprises me anymore...

This is what I love about Tigran

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKbfMuxRFG

That can't possibly be what you like Tigran. I don't believe it. Namely because I get a message that says "Malformed Video ID."

Could you find the vid again and repost?

lol opps, here you go. I hope it works this time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKbfMuxRFGc

Etcetra,

Is this typical of what Tigran does, what you find him doing in an exceptional concert? And are you talking about his beatbox stuff as being why you love him or the solo piano bit or...?

In any case, for me, I'm sure this vid would fall under the category of performance that I'd need to experience in person. Based on that performance I'm not sure I appreciate him as much as you do. Talented guy, no doubt, but maybe I'm just getting too old to appreciate why he is considered one of the up and coming greats.

Do you have any links of him in other situations, ie not live performances?

I don't want to get too technical, but he does have insane chops rhythmically. I transcribed his music and some of ben wendell's (they play together quite often), and it's amazing just much they have together in terms of poly-rhythm... it really shows in his compositions. On top of that he has his Armenian influence which he is able to fuse with jazz seamlessly.

I think I can relate to his beatboxing more because I am somewhat his age, and it's nice to see how he is incorporating things that we are (more) familiar with growing up. Again, without going too much into detail him and the drummer does some neat metric modulation stuff later in the beatboxing.

Tigran won the 2006 monk competition over Aaron Parks and Gearld Clayton.. I wasn't there but according to what I read the judges chose him because of the stuff he is trying rhythmically.

you can check out his stuff, and other stuff like his on myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/tigranhamasyan
http://www.myspace.com/benwendelmusician

Maybe it's just a personal taste.. I am not that big of a fan of Hiromi or Eldar, but I like what Aaron Parks and Tigran is doing musically.. I listened to some of Vijay Iyer and I can't relate to it, but it might grow on me

FYI I am not saying I like his stuff for all those technical reasons.. I liked his music a lot so I decided to transcribe whole bunch of stuff, and I got a lot of insights into pol rhythm because of that. I don't think I'd be able to explain some of the rhythmic stuff that was happening couple of months ago.

btw check out Ben Wendell's tune "breath" he does a lot of similar stuff rhythmically..

I was just checking out Smalls jazz club site, they have a few gigs recorded with Tigran which you can listen to online (free as well). I was enjoying his playing with Ari Hoenig.
Smalls is just about the best internet jazz resource out there IMO.