CD review: Zela Margossian Quintet – Transition 2018: Video

Art As Catharsis is proud to announce the release of the Zela Margossian Quintet’s debut album Transition – a richly textured progressive world jazz album with heavy Armenian influences.

Margossian draws influence from an elaborate range of middle-eastern music, resulting in melodies that juggle speed, calculation and experimentation alongside a sometimes soft, windswept mood. Armenian jazz from the likes of Vahagn Hayrapetyan and the Cats, The Armenian Navy Band, traditional Armenian music, the works of Tunisian composer, singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef and Tigran Hamasyan are all listed under Margossian’s main inspirations, taking form in music with a complex sound, shape and technique.

With rich instrumental layering and a dusty middle-eastern progression guiding the music, Mystical Flute: A Version is the first single off Transition. Between the bounding double bass, warm clarinet and Margossian’s elaborate piano technique lies an intricate execution of technical prowess as each musician successfully toys with velocity, tempo and mood.

By the time the song ends, Mystical Flute successfully conveys the strengths of the quintet as the music lands in a place where pinpoint synchronicity meets exceptional instrumentation.

“The original tune is by the American-Armenian composer, Alan Hovhaness,” says Margossian on her first single. “I have performed this piece of music many years ago as part of my classical repertoire when I was 10 or 12. I’ve always loved the composer’s minimalist approach to this piece. It sounds enchanting and mystical. After so many years, I thought I would do an arrangement of it and add a section, which is completely new, followed by an improvisational section. The band and I workshopped the form in the solo sections and after a few lives performances of the piece, it matured and developed into the version that we have now in the album. “

From start to finish, the songs on Transition bear many hidden traits that make it all the more enjoyable. Margossian’s stop-start style of fast, accurate piano, coupled with the quintet’s wild percussion and drumming, soothing clarinet and double bass are all perfectly complemented by a clean, authentic production style – allowing each instrument to breathe and be appreciated to their fullest.

1. Transition
2. Ceasefire
3. Triptych: Katil (Drop)
4. Shounch (Breath/Inhale)
5. Artashounch (Exhale)
6. Doumé
7. The Child In Me
8. Mystic Flute: A Version
9. Aleeq (Waves)
10. The Child in Me (alternate take)

Zela Margossian / piano
Stuart Vandegraaff / soprano saxophone, clarinet
Adem YIlmaz / percussion
Elsen Price / double bass, bass guitar
Alexander Inman-Hislop / drum kit
with:
Metin Yilmaz / kaval (on tracks 9 and 10)