TigraN

Being a virtuoso art, jazz produces prodigies just as miraculous as those in classical music. The sensational young Armenian pianist TigraN Hamasyan is one of them. He has been raising eyebrows and dropping jaws worldwide since winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in Los Angeles in 2006.

His unusual marriage of jazz and Armenian folk has picked up high-profile fans including Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau and Herbie Hancock; his most recent album, A Fable, topped the jazz charts in France.

Now 24, TigraN grew up in an Armenian household that was full of music. By the time he was three he was working his way through figuring out songs on piano by pop artists. Now based in Los Angeles, his jazz tastes early on were informed by Miles Davis’s fusion period and then, around the age of ten he came to discover the classic modern jazz songbook.

Dressed in black and looking like a young Bob Dylan, TigraN places his stool away from the piano and bends double while playing, his forehead almost touching the keys. He sometimes mumbles into the microphone while soloing; occasionally beat-boxing over the funkier tracks, sometimes singing wordless, hymn-like compositions.

Don’t miss the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival debut of one of the hottest young guns in jazz today. Presented in association with Mintaka Music.

lineup: Tigran Hamasyan (Piano), Edel Sullivan (Violin)