Armenian jazz: Tigran Hamasyan, the Armenian Navy Band and the Soviet big bands

Armenian jazz has a longer history than most people expect, and its best-known pianist today plays Armenian folk melodies to festival crowds. Here is the story, and what to play first.

By The Armenly team. Written November 11, 2026.

Key findings

  • Yerevan's first jazz band was formed in 1936 by Tsolak Vardazaryan. In 1938 Artemi Ayvazyan founded the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra, one of the leading jazz orchestras in the Soviet Union [1].
  • After a ban on jazz that lasted until Stalin's death in 1953, Konstantin Orbelyan formed an estrada quintet for Armenian Radio in 1954 and went on to lead the State Estrada Orchestra of Armenia [1] [2].
  • Tigran Hamasyan, born in Gyumri in 1987, won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2006. His music draws on Armenian folk scales [3].
  • Arto Tunçboyacıyan founded the Armenian Navy Band in Yerevan in 1998 with pianist Vahagn Hayrapetyan [4].

The Soviet years

Tsolak Vardazaryan formed Yerevan's first jazz band in 1936, and two years later Artemi Ayvazyan founded the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra. During World War II it was sent to play for the Red Army [1]. After the war jazz was banned until 1953; in 1954 Konstantin Orbelyan put together an estrada quintet for Armenian Radio [1].

Orbelyan (1928–2014), a pianist and composer, led the State Estrada Orchestra of Armenia and was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1979 [2]. In 1963, Levon Malkhasyan started Yerevan's first small jazz group, the Levon Malkhasyan Trio, and in 1998 he helped start the Yerevan International Jazz Festival [1].

Jazz players abroad listened to Armenian music too: Bill Evans played Aram Khachaturian for Miles Davis, who wrote that he was intrigued by "all those different scales he used" [1].

Tigran Hamasyan

He was born in Gyumri on July 17, 1987, to a family whose ancestors came from Kars. He began playing melodies on the family piano at three, studied jazz from nine, and in his teens started improvising on Armenian folk melodies. The Armenian composers Arno Babajanian and Avet Terterian influenced him [3].

He moved to California at 16 and now lives in Yerevan. He won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2006, and his albums run from A Fable (2011), the most folk-based, to Luys i Luso (2015, ECM), An Ancient Observer (2017) and StandArt (2022), his album of American standards [3].

Arto Tunçboyacıyan and the Armenian Navy Band

Arto Tunçboyacıyan was born in Istanbul in 1957, recorded Anatolian music from age 11, and moved to New York in 1981, where he worked with jazz musicians including Chet Baker, Al Di Meola and Joe Zawinul [4]. In 1998 he went to Yerevan, met Vahagn Hayrapetyan, and with ten local musicians formed the Armenian Navy Band. Their first album, Bzdik Zinvor, was recorded in 1999, and in 2006 the band was nominated for the BBC World Music Awards [4].

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Questions people ask

Who is the most famous Armenian jazz musician?

Today, the pianist Tigran Hamasyan, from Gyumri, who won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2006 and records for Nonesuch and ECM.

When did jazz start in Armenia?

Yerevan's first jazz band formed in 1936, and the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra in 1938.

What is the Armenian Navy Band?

A Yerevan band founded in 1998 by Arto Tunçboyacıyan with pianist Vahagn Hayrapetyan, mixing jazz with Armenian folk music.

Is there a jazz festival in Yerevan?

Yes. The Yerevan International Jazz Festival began in 1998; the pianist Levon Malkhasyan was one of its founders.

Sources

Cite this page

The Armenly team, "Armenian jazz: Tigran Hamasyan, the Armenian Navy Band and the Soviet big bands." Armenly, November 11, 2026. https://armenly.com/guides/armenian-jazz

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