RICHMOND, Calif., June 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ever restless, pianist-composer Armen Donelian takes yet another bold creative turn with Inquiry, his 15th album, to be released June 5 on Sunnyside Records. The result of a four-year, carefully conceived and painstakingly executed studio process, the album is a haunting and introspective work with no real precedent in Donelian’s long career.
Beginning life as an unaccompanied demo recording of Donelian’s then-newest compositions and arrangements, Inquiry evolved considerably from that genesis. While musing on the timbral possibilities on some of the tracks, Donelian (and engineer Dave Cook) had the revelation that he could build out orchestrations himself “by making subtle EQ shifts to the piano sound to create new ‘voices’ and ‘instruments.’” Yet Donelian also applies actual new voices and instruments to several tracks. Vocalist Dominique Eade, trombonist Ed Neumeister, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Dennis Mackrel appear in various places to put their own stamps on Donelian’s ruminations.
“I relied on Dominique, Ed, Jay, and Dennis to provide actual voices and instruments where I felt the arrangements called for them,” the pianist says. “It’s due to their superb musicianship that the tracks they played on sound as if they were recorded live.”
Indeed, only two of Inquiry’s ten tracks were done in a fully live session: the tender rendition of Miles Davis and Bill Evans’s “Blue in Green,” performed as a quartet with Eade (singing Cassandra Wilson’s lyric), Anderson, and Mackrel; and the gorgeous improvisation “Aqua Reminiscence,” which comes from an alternate take of “Blue in Green.” Yet this quartet gives equal depth and color to Donelian’s “What Is” and “Petite Triste (A Little Sad),” with Neumeister joining them for the heavy, fraught “Inverted Reality.”
There is no less intensity, however, in the tunes with fewer players. “Dark Moon,” a sinister and forlorn recasting of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, is stark and stunning in both its solo first half and Neumeister’s disorienting arrival in the second; Anderson brings a shading and contour to “Weeping Willow” that only enhances its distinct moodiness. Meanwhile, Donelian’s piano playing is as remarkable as ever, needing no augmentation for the astonishing inventions he puts on Stephen Sondheim’s “Somewhere” or the sheer power of his own “Beyond” and “Too Soon Gone.”
At bottom, Donelian explains, Inquiry is “a place of unrelenting musical introspection” that “expresses my love for the piano sound.” More to the point, though, it is a multifaceted, multidimensional work of art.
Armen Donelian was born December 1, 1950 to a family of Armenian immigrants in New York City. Growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, he began studying piano at the age of seven, enrolling at the Westchester Conservatory of Music. At 12, he discovered jazz by way of a trad band led by noted studio guitarist Arthur Ryerson; Armen’s older brother played clarinet in the band, and he himself eventually became its pianist.
He studied music theory, composition, and conducting at Columbia University—the alma mater of his physicist father—but also engaged in an independent study of sorts by moonlighting during college as a gigging musician on both piano and guitar. After graduating in 1972, however, came the real education. Donelian studied privately with pianist Richie Beirach for two years, enabling him to then collaborate with the likes of Mongo Santamaria, Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, and Billy Harper.
These employers and mentors gave Donelian a foothold on which to establish himself as a serious jazz musician—a reputation he solidified in 1981 with the release of his trio debut Stargazer (reissued on Sunnyside Records in 2025). A dozen more albums followed over the next 30-odd years, including the acclaimed releases A Reverie (his 1986 first album for Sunnyside), Secrets (1988), Leapfrog (2011), Sayat-Nova: Songs of My Ancestors (2014), and Fresh Start (2022). Inquiry adds yet another unique layer to this already formidable legacy.
Armen Donelian’s summer performance schedule is as follows: Sundays beginning 5/3, solo piano, Isaan Thai Star Restaurant, Hudson, NY (6pm); 6/20 piano/sax duet (Armen w/ Michael Zsoldos), North Chapel, Woodstock, VT (7pm); 6/21-27 Interplay Jazz and Arts Workshop (w/ Armen & faculty), Meriden, NH; 7/13-16 solo piano, Bryant Park, NYC (12:30pm); 8/6-9 20th Annual Hudson Jazz Workshop/Alumni Priority Reunion (Armen w/ Marc Mommaas, faculty, guest Steve Cardenas), Hudson, NY; 8/9 Hudson Jazzworks Concert/Alumni Priority Reunion (Armen w/ Marc Mommaas, Steve Cardenas, HJW participants), Hudson (NY) Hall (4pm); 8/17-23 Zonora Jazz Workshop (Armen w/ Scott Black, faculty), Tucson, AZ; 8/21 Quintet (Armen w/ Jason Carder, Brice Winston, Colin McIlrath, Arthur Vint), Century Room, Tucson, AZ (6:30pm & 8:30pm); 8/22 Trio (Armen w/ Scott Black, Pete Swan), Century Room, Tucson, AZ (6:30pm & 8:30pm); 8/23 Zonora Jazz Workshop Concert (Armen w/ Scott Black, ZJW participants), Century Room, Tucson, AZ (4:30pm).
www.armendonelian.com
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