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BERKSHIRE JAZZ: ARMEN DONELIAN'S NEW CD TAKES JAZZ ARTIST BACK TO HIS ROOTS
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
April 25, 2014 Friday
By Richard Houdek, Special to The Eagle,
GREAT BARRINGTON -- In live performances and a multi-faceted
discography, Armen Donelian, the much admired pianist and composer,
has fused a solid foundation in the music of the classical masters
with his pursuit of the jazz genre.
And he has embarked on a fresh recording adventure close to his heart
-- and to his roots.
"Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors" was released this month on the
Sunnyside label. "You might be hard pressed to categorize this music
because it's so deeply influenced by classical, jazz and Armen's
Armenian folk heritage," observed Edward Bride, chairman of Berkshire
Jazz, Inc., "so the safest category is probably improvisational music."
Indicative of Bride's esteem for Donelian, Berkshire Jazz is presenting
a recording release party at 4 p.m. Sunday in Castle Street Cafe's
Celestial Bar, where the Armen Donelian Trio -- Donelian, David Clark,
bass, and George Schuller, drums -- will offer three sets of music
to celebrate the occasion as part of National Jazz Appreciation Month.
Born in 1712 in a small northern Armenia village, Sayat-Nova was a
notable troubadour eventually summoned as an entertainer to the royal
court of Georgian King Irakli II.
"He was a self-taught musician, and a great poet, as well as a singer,"
explained Donelian in a phone conversation earlier this week from
his home and studio in Hudson, N.Y. "His poetry is amazing in its
complexity and beauty. He wrote hundreds of love songs and odes."
Donelian who suggests in liner annotations that Sayat-Nova's verses
often are compared to Shakespeare and the beauty of his melodies rank
with those of the greatest European composers.
Donelian, whose ancestors migrated to this country after escaping the
brutal Turkish genocide in 1915, obviously was influenced by Armenian
culture. But his early, stronger influences involved his father's
record collection of classical music -- Beethoven, Bach and Mozart --
and of the giants of jazz.
He remembers first playing by ear on what he calls "a derelict
upright piano," which led to lessons from a local teacher, followed by
enrollment at the Westchester Conservatory in White Plains, N.Y., where
an Austrian Jew named Michael Pollon, who was trained in Berlin and
escaped the Holocaust in 1939, provided a strong classical background.
"Thanks to him, when I was 17, in 1968, upon graduation from high
school, I gave a recital of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy
and Prokofiev," Donelian said.
A major factor in Donelian's life was his study with the great
jazz pianist Richie Beirich, "whose formidable grasp of classical
and 20th-century music and their application to jazz improvisation
expanded my sonic horizons," said Donelian. Thereafter, he performed
with such luminaries as Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker and Paquito D'Rivera
before forming his own ensembles and initiating his successful series
of recordings.
Donelian, who confessed being confounded earlier by the odd
rhythms and the modes of Middle Eastern music, said he was drawn
to it beginning in his 30s, performing with a number of Armenian
musicians and groups, which led to a defining journey to Armenia for
performances. While there, a colleague recommended a rare 1946 Soviet
volume of Sayat-Nova's unabridged poems, which served as a basis for
his selections on "Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors."
The recording has two parts, the first devoted to piano solos, Disk 2,
with the Trio. "The process for arranging happened very organically,
over quite a bit of time," Donelian explained. "I strove to preserve
both the content and the character of the original melodies, imbuing
them with my jazz sensibilities, my jazz harmonies and rhythms.
"There were those that just naturally felt they needed treatment by
the trio; others felt more personal and reflective. The music just
decided it for me."
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
April 25, 2014 Friday
By Richard Houdek, Special to The Eagle,
GREAT BARRINGTON -- In live performances and a multi-faceted
discography, Armen Donelian, the much admired pianist and composer,
has fused a solid foundation in the music of the classical masters
with his pursuit of the jazz genre.
And he has embarked on a fresh recording adventure close to his heart
-- and to his roots.
"Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors" was released this month on the
Sunnyside label. "You might be hard pressed to categorize this music
because it's so deeply influenced by classical, jazz and Armen's
Armenian folk heritage," observed Edward Bride, chairman of Berkshire
Jazz, Inc., "so the safest category is probably improvisational music."
Indicative of Bride's esteem for Donelian, Berkshire Jazz is presenting
a recording release party at 4 p.m. Sunday in Castle Street Cafe's
Celestial Bar, where the Armen Donelian Trio -- Donelian, David Clark,
bass, and George Schuller, drums -- will offer three sets of music
to celebrate the occasion as part of National Jazz Appreciation Month.
Born in 1712 in a small northern Armenia village, Sayat-Nova was a
notable troubadour eventually summoned as an entertainer to the royal
court of Georgian King Irakli II.
"He was a self-taught musician, and a great poet, as well as a singer,"
explained Donelian in a phone conversation earlier this week from
his home and studio in Hudson, N.Y. "His poetry is amazing in its
complexity and beauty. He wrote hundreds of love songs and odes."
Donelian who suggests in liner annotations that Sayat-Nova's verses
often are compared to Shakespeare and the beauty of his melodies rank
with those of the greatest European composers.
Donelian, whose ancestors migrated to this country after escaping the
brutal Turkish genocide in 1915, obviously was influenced by Armenian
culture. But his early, stronger influences involved his father's
record collection of classical music -- Beethoven, Bach and Mozart --
and of the giants of jazz.
He remembers first playing by ear on what he calls "a derelict
upright piano," which led to lessons from a local teacher, followed by
enrollment at the Westchester Conservatory in White Plains, N.Y., where
an Austrian Jew named Michael Pollon, who was trained in Berlin and
escaped the Holocaust in 1939, provided a strong classical background.
"Thanks to him, when I was 17, in 1968, upon graduation from high
school, I gave a recital of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy
and Prokofiev," Donelian said.
A major factor in Donelian's life was his study with the great
jazz pianist Richie Beirich, "whose formidable grasp of classical
and 20th-century music and their application to jazz improvisation
expanded my sonic horizons," said Donelian. Thereafter, he performed
with such luminaries as Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker and Paquito D'Rivera
before forming his own ensembles and initiating his successful series
of recordings.
Donelian, who confessed being confounded earlier by the odd
rhythms and the modes of Middle Eastern music, said he was drawn
to it beginning in his 30s, performing with a number of Armenian
musicians and groups, which led to a defining journey to Armenia for
performances. While there, a colleague recommended a rare 1946 Soviet
volume of Sayat-Nova's unabridged poems, which served as a basis for
his selections on "Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors."
The recording has two parts, the first devoted to piano solos, Disk 2,
with the Trio. "The process for arranging happened very organically,
over quite a bit of time," Donelian explained. "I strove to preserve
both the content and the character of the original melodies, imbuing
them with my jazz sensibilities, my jazz harmonies and rhythms.
"There were those that just naturally felt they needed treatment by
the trio; others felt more personal and reflective. The music just
decided it for me."