Rage (Donelian) / The Poet (Donelian) / Winter (Donelian) / Behind The Veil (Donelian) / Bygone (Mommaas) /
Smoke (Donelian) / Mexico (Donelian) / Inner Sanctum (Donelian)
Armen Donelian piano
Marc Mommaas saxophone
Mike Moreno guitar
Dean Johnson bass
Tyshawn Sorey drums
Hold on to your hat. This is Donelian's 9th set for Sunnyside, and even after a four decade career where he played with all the jazzbos that matter, he still might be the heaviest cat you never heard of. A New Yorker that likes to explore his Armenian roots, he is a piano improv player of the first order. This is an angular set of sitting down jazz that certainly doesn't take things lightly. Certainly the kind of cat that knows how to keep a foot in each of the past and the future, he's captured that vortex where moldy figs and progressives can meet and each be right about what they hear, even if they can't convince the other. Donelian and his crew know how to work up a sweat. - Chris Spector, Midwest Record (7/30/11)
Release date September 13, 2011
Armen Donelian website
