Tigran Hamasyan - Jazz +world music +meshuggah +fempop

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wankerness

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I just saw Becca in Ohio last week, and I didn't put two and two together either! Oops. My girlfriend is a huge Tigran fan, but stayed home from the Becca show. Had she known...

She missed out, since Becca Stevens is awesome! I'm glad to hear someone else knows who she is and went to her show. The one in Milwaukee was rather poorly attended, though it was in a hole-in-the-wall size venue (I think it was technically full, but there were like 25-30 people there!). From talking to some of the other attendees, it seemed like I was the only one who'd come in from out of town to see her. The only chairs in the room with the stage were literally next to the stage, I was probably 6 feet from Becca and 3 from the drum set. It was kind of awkward (I feel weird looking at a singer if I'm RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM and they can see me clearly!), but pretty awesome. I'd only heard her albums previously and it was pretty stunning to see that stuff played live, I hadn't noticed how intricate all her guitar playing is. She even managed to make interesting and complex ukelele lines!

She's pretty much a beast, one of the best singers I've ever heard (a great demo is "The Confession" from the Billy Childs Laura Nyro tribute album) and I was pretty shocked at how good her guitar playing was when I saw her live, and she was essentially flawless on both vocal and guitar counts while playing. Also, she had a great sense of humor, I loved all the back and forths with her and the accordion player. They played 14 songs and almost all of them were great, my favorites were the two new songs which she hasn't recorded yet (Heron Hawk and something that David Crosby had written the lyrics for?). Meeting my previously anonymous bass-playing hero afterwards was just the icing on the cake!

Becca Stevens samples, all but the last Laura Nyro - Confession one feature Mr. Tigran bassist on them. She's also the singer for a jazz group that does exclusively Bjork covers, so if you're a bjork fan might want to check those out (Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra is the name).






(This is an Usher cover, but she made it creepy and the outro sure is badass)


(this live version is a bit more restrained than the album)
 

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InCasinoOut

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Time for an incredible story of idiocy:

Tonight, I saw Becca Stevens live, who is an absolutely fantastic singer/songwriter (she's also done guest appearances on a ton of jazz albums). Anyway, after the show, I was talking to the band's roadie, and she introduced me to the bassist. I was talking to him, and I said I liked his playing and asked what else he'd played on. He said "recently I've been working a lot with this piano player." I said "who, maybe I've heard of him?" He says "Tigran.." and I cut him off and go "WHAT?! I'VE LISTENED TO SHADOW THEATER ABOUT A HUNDRED TIMES!" He says "yeah, I recorded about half the songs on Shadow Theater and have done a bunch of shows with him over the last few years." I said "WHAT SONGS DID YOU RECORD" and he goes "Drip, The Court Jester, The Year Is Gone, Lament, uh...I can't even remember the other titles." So, I instantly went into fanboy overdrive and was telling him how that was my favorite album of 2013 and I LOVED his bass playing on Drip/Court Jester and I was starting to ask him questions about technical aspects of how he was playing it - I talked to him for like 5 minutes just about how he plays the full band heavy entrance in Court Jester! I could have talked to that dude for hours. What a chill guy. He said if I was trying to get a good transcription, I should just listen to the audio from that show on youtube cause he played the same thing there and is more audible. He said the parts were all written out when he got them. I foolishly didn't ask how the outro to Court Jester was notated meter-wise. So yeah, that was him in that live in Frnace video and on half of that album and I didn't even recognize him or his name. I FAIL. It was so great to meet him, though. Chris Tordini is his name. He apparently works with everyone.

He said that he only played on one track on Mockroot, which was the one with Areni, which he said had actually been recorded during the Shadow Theater sessions. He said he'd been sad that it got left off Shadow Theater and was really happy when they put it back on that one. He also said that Tigran's next album is written around a full women's choir, he said it was "religious or Christian or something" which I assumed meant Armenian stuff, but hey, maybe not! He said he didn't think Areni was involved (apparently pronounced ARNIE).

Oh, and check out Becca Stevens, she's f***in fantastic.

Aww man, you saw this at the Jazz Estate? I was there Friday for We Six + Brian Lynch, and saw her posters up. I was curious about it, but worked on Saturday for Pabstfest at Burnhearts. Was too wiped out to go.
 

Poparad

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They played 14 songs and almost all of them were great, my favorites were the two new songs which she hasn't recorded yet (Heron Hawk and something that David Crosby had written the lyrics for?).

Those were my favorites, too, and I told her so afterwards. I encouraged her to record them asap so we can all enjoy them! They're from a concert she did last week of a collection of songs called "Regina" that she was commissioned to write.
 

wankerness

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Those were my favorites, too, and I told her so afterwards. I encouraged her to record them asap so we can all enjoy them! They're from a concert she did last week of a collection of songs called "Regina" that she was commissioned to write.

Thank God you told her that, that's a load off my mind! If I had been coherent I would have said something similar, cause I really want to hear those songs again too, but when I talked to her I basically just said "hurr durr I liek you hurr durr." :hbang: Did she say anything about them being recorded?
 

shpence

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Hey whomever mentioned to check out Becca Stevens, thanks! I'm really enjoying it.
 

jonajon91

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There was a music video for lament uploaded today on YouTube, but it seems to be private at the moment. Something to look forward to at least.
 

Tube777

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Love that thread! Thanks for sharing these great artists!

Here's my little contribution:

Maria joao (singer), Mario laginha (piano)
World jazz stuff from Portugal

http://youtu.be/4uH3Ssk6kWA

One of my fave groove and awesome bass solo
 

WildBroskiAppears

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I've started to think of the 5/16-based section in Double-Faced as a sort of pacer test for rhythmic control that progressively increases in difficulty.

Starts with the 5/16 pinned beneath a plain 4/4 pulse, very easy to follow and time the extended rest at the end of each bar. Then they lose the dada-da-dada-da-dada-da hihat click and accent the 5/16's solely with the kick while still maintaining 4/4. That is still relatively easy to follow while maintaining an internal pulse. The twist in that area comes once they start to drop the pretense of the 4/4 for those last three 5/16 groups before the rest. Finally, the 5/16 group becomes the main pulse, with no trace of the original quarter note pulse to be found. That is where I fail the test, personally. I end up just latching on to the 5-tuplets and trying my best to time the extended rest properly. Regardless, it is very fun and intriguing to listen to.
 

Poparad

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Thank God you told her that, that's a load off my mind! If I had been coherent I would have said something similar, cause I really want to hear those songs again too, but when I talked to her I basically just said "hurr durr I liek you hurr durr." :hbang: Did she say anything about them being recorded?

She said she would like to record them, but currently hasn't made any plans (the debut show was just two days earlier when I spoke to her, so I'm sure that had been her main focus until then). She sounded a little unsure about the songs, since they were new (I'm the same way too... I think new stuff I write is weak until I play it a bunch and/or record it, then it grows on me), but she said she was happy to hear that I liked them so much.
 

wankerness

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She said she would like to record them, but currently hasn't made any plans (the debut show was just two days earlier when I spoke to her, so I'm sure that had been her main focus until then). She sounded a little unsure about the songs, since they were new (I'm the same way too... I think new stuff I write is weak until I play it a bunch and/or record it, then it grows on me), but she said she was happy to hear that I liked them so much.

Good to hear! I'm surprised she was unsure of them since they sounded very fully composed to me! Makes me regret more not managing to say anything good in the 20 seconds I talked to her for. It kinda blows my mind how few people seem to have heard her solo stuff. I hope she comes through the midwest again sometime, would be good to talk to her when there aren't several other people vying for her attention and I'm not in spaz mode. I did mention to her that I'd been listening to her back catalog, and one of the things I named (Dapp Theory) made her go "oh god. I don't think I've even heard that" in a disgusted manner like "ugh I was trying to forget that," haha. I faux-pas'd!! And right at that moment some family friend of hers came up and just walked in front of everyone so I was like "uhhh, awkward, I'm out of here!!"
 

wankerness

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Tigran Hamasyan

Here's the site for his new album, it comes out September 4th on ECM (according to some internet sources, Tigran's site doesn't mention anything!). As mentioned by that bass player, it sounds like "some kind of choral religious stuff." The background music on the site starts out VERY subtle but pretty cool once the piano comes in. Make sure you listen to the entire track, it gets progressively better as it goes along. The falling part at the end is completely gorgeous. I'll definitely be interested to hear the whole album.

Here's a detailed press release kind of article about it:

http://www.mintakamusic.com/tigran-the-luys-i-luso-project-for-piano-choir/
 

wankerness

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My brother did this when he was bored last week, PDF posted cause this site won't accept midis, and I don't think he wants me posting the finale file :D

He is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better than me at transcribing piano, haha.
 

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TheHandOfStone

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That's awesome!

Makes me wish I had invested more time into reading music. I can "decode" it but I'm by no means fluent. When I actually get around to transcribing some Tigran, it'll probably be in Guitar Pro lol.
 
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