By Kerilie McDowall | Published June 2019
Pianist Zela Margossian’s compositional palette honors her Armenian roots throughout Transition, her debut quintet release. The perspective of the Beirut-born, Sydney-based Margossian unites Armenian rhythms with the musical flavors of Lebanon, her classical music training, and American jazz and folk.
The stormy title track captures Elsen Price’s impressionistic bass, summoning mystical images of expansive sea-swept cliffs, mesmerizing ocean-water ripples and pastoral meadows. Margossian breezes through the 10/8 meter on “Shounch (Breath/Inhale),” creating a catchy hook with two-chord free groove solo sections from the quintet’s driving drums, percussion, piano and saxophone. Like a meditative waterfall, Margossian’s gentle piano ostinato flows serenely with kaval (a flute instrument historically played by Armenian shepherds) opening “The Child In Me (Alternate Take).” An energetic Armenian folk/jazz-inspired start to her solo takes dramatic flight, closing with the tranquil solitude of pensive modal solo piano.
Transitioning among seemingly impossible musical and rhythmic puzzles and into an effortless harmonious whole, Margossian’s strong compositional themes and organic, intuitive sense for sophisticated meters only is enhanced. Embracing her background and a shift over to jazz following classical music studies, the bandleader has carved out an entrancing and dazzingly unique kaleidoscopic niche.
Transition: Transition; Ceasefire; Triptych (Katil (Drop)/Shounch (Breath/Inhale)/Artashounch (Exhale)); Doumé; The Child In Me; Mystic Flute: A Version; Aleeq (Waves); The Child In Me (Alternate Take). (56:10)
Personnel: Zela Margossian, piano; Stuart Vandegraaff, soprano saxophone, clarinet; Elsen Price, bass, electric bass; Alexander Inman-Hislop, drums; Adem Yilmaz, percussion; Metin Yilmaz, plul, kaval (9, 10).
