Armen Nalbandian

In both concept and art direction, Coup de Grace references Peter Brötzmann's 1968 album Machine Gun, which also features Bennink.

Armen Nalbandian (born April 6, 1978, in Manchester, England) is a British-born Armenian American jazz pianist, composer, author, and activist from Los Angeles, California.

Highly influenced by Thelonious Monk, Nalbandian performs jazz, free and avant-garde jazz, improvised and experimental music.

While his primary ensemble is the Armen Nalbandian Trio, he has led more than 30 different ensembles and composed over 1200 works ranging from music for string quartets, chamber music, orchestral music, electronic music, scores for theater, experimental hiphop, new Japanese and Armenian inspired folk music, and John Zorn inspired "game pieces" in addition to having performed a solo piano concert of Zorn's Masada music with the encouragement and blessing of the composer.

His past ensembles have included the Armen Nalbandian Trio (with Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits), Armen Nalbandian V (with Jeff Parker Chris Speed, Eric Revis, and Alex Cline), and the Armen Nalbandian 3 (with Steve Lehman and Guillermo E. Brown).

He cites witnessing a Cecil Taylor performance at LA's Jazz Bakery when he was 19 years old as a turning point in his life and career.

He is the protege of jazz pianist John Hicks but also credits Bill Dixon and McCoy Tyner for being important teachers in addition to Charlie Haden, Jackie McLean, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins, Art Farmer, and Harold Land.

Nalbandian’s collaborators have included Billy Higgins, Han Bennink, Eric Revis, Nasheet Waits, Jeff Parker, Steve Lehman, Chris Speed, Guillermo E. Brown, Alex Cline, Dave King, Koichi Makigami, and Chris Corsano.

Nalbandian is also known for his multidisciplinary collaborations in visual and fine art which include a four-year residency at the Fresno Art Museum where he served as music director and Artist-in-Residence.

Additional collaborations have included compositions featuring poets Sunni Patterson, Lee Herrick, and Tim Z. Hernandez; as a member of Nino Moschella's touring band for The Fix and Boom Shadow, composing and arranging the Music of Mexico for the Fresno Philharmonic, and composing the score for The Artist's Repertory Theater production of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.

He established the record label Blacksmith Brother in 2006.

Released in March 2006, Armen was Nalbandian's debut album as a leader and the debut recording featuring the first Armen Nalbandian Trio.

The recording features Nalbandian on piano, and contains five original compositions by Nalbandian, and five by other composers including the rarely performed Thelonious Monk composition "Oska T", and the traditional spiritual "This Train".

Nalbandian's composition "Need" is dedicated to memory of pianist Kenny Kirkland.

Manchester Born was released in November 2007 and features The Armen Nalbandian Trio.

This was Armen Nalbandian's debut recording on the Fender Rhodes.

The recording consists of ten compositions by Nalbandian and is dedicated to his mentor John Hicks, and in memory of Alice Coltrane and Andrew Hill.

Initially inspired by avant-garde drummer Chris Corsano's solo drum album The Young Cricketer and the music of Ikue Mori, Armen Nalbandian's first solo recording was named after a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and features Nalbandian on the "prepared" Fender Rhodes.

The recording was made by Nalbandian performing primarily on the inside of the Fender Rhodes, treating it as a percussion instrument, manipulating the hammers with drum cymbals, snare drum heads, wrenches, mallets, and keys.

Nalbandian also employed an analog delay pedal and a wah-wah pedal.

The recording is completely improvised with the exception of the composition "Blues to Steve Lacy", which was composed by trumpeter Dave Douglas.

The sound of the album has elicit comparisons to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and John Cage's prepared piano music.

The album has been featured heavily on WFMU, called by Rolling Stone Magazine, The Village Voice, CMJ and the New York Press as "the best radio station in the country."

To Repel Ghosts is an experimental electronic production and live album comprising eleven compositions by Nalbandian.

The album is Nalbandian's second recording named after the work of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

To Repel Ghosts was Nalbandian's first digital-only album, released exclusively on the artist's website in its first year.

Nalbandian's album Tirez Sur Le Pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) was released nine months before and includes three compositions that also appear on To Repel Ghosts.

The music on both albums has been compared to Kid A/Amnesiac-era Radiohead and the LA beat scene.

In 2008, Nalbandian was named a finalist in the 2008 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Talent Search and has received praise from Dave Douglas, Susie Ibarra, and Matthew Shipp.

In 2011 and 2012, Nalbandian had multiple improvised performances with comedian Dave Chappelle at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland and San Francisco.

On August 23, 2011, Nalbandian released two distinctly different albums.

The first, Coup de Grace, is a live recording featuring Nalbandian on piano and drummer Han Bennink in an improvised duet setting.

Bennink, perhaps best known as one of the pivotal figures in early European free jazz and free improvisation, is the co-founder of the Instant Composers Pool (ICP).

Nalbandian and Bennink conclude the performance with a rendition of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman".

In 2017, Nalbandian premiered two new ensembles to add to his work with his trio with Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits and his solo piano work.

The first, a new quintet named Armen Nalbandian V featuring Chris Speed, Jeff Parker, Eric Revis & Alex Cline and the Armen Nalbandian 3 with Steve Lehman & Guillermo E. Brown; loosely inspired by Cecil Taylor's trio with Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille.

In October 2017, he premiered a solo piano piece by Wadada Leo Smith entitled "Majestic".

In May 2023, Nalbandian released The Complex Relationship Between Two Simple Machines Machines, a spontaneously composed album with David King & Chris Speed.

The album’s title is derived from the combined practice of Senegalese physicist Oumar Haidara Fall and Spanish artist Rubén Ramos Balsa which presents a unification of theories from different realms of physics.

In September 2023 he released A Spontaneous Breaking of Symmetry I. the first volume in a series of duo recordings with drummer Chris Corsano.