Pianist Tigran Hamasyan returns to Los Angeles for jazz festival

Armenian born young piano virtuoso Tigran Hamasyan and his Tigran Quintet will return to Los Angeles to perform at the Angel City Jazz Festival, Asbarez.com reported.

The event returns to the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday October 1.

Called “Amazing” by no less a jazz piano authority than Herbie Hancock and regarded as an absolute prodigy of his instrument, Hamasyan is a recent winner of the world-renowned Thelonious Monk Piano Competition and the Montreux Jazz Solo Competition.
Hamasyan, who lives in Paris now, combines the Armenian folk melodies of with the complexities of jazz.

Festival producers Rocco Somazzi and Jeff Gauthier continue to explore new and provocative avenues of creative jazz at the 4th annual Angel City Jazz Festival. The theme for the 2011 festival is Global Jam, with artists representing nine countries at seven events in six venues throughout Los Angeles. The festival centerpiece production will take place Saturday October 1 at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.

Sited in the historic Cahuenga Pass in the world famous Hollywood Hills, the Amphitheatre was originally known as the Pilgrimage Theatre and is one of the oldest performing arts venues in Los Angeles still in use. The Amphitheater has a rich jazz tradition which included a regular jazz series in the 1960s and 70s, and an annual Mother’s Day Jazz & Blues Extravaganza.