Armen Nalbandian

In 2018, Nalbandian released 8 albums chronicling his studio and live performances from 2017. The recordings cover his solo piano work, trio and V. The albums were released one at a time, each month for the first 8 months of 2018, culminating with a live trio performance in September 2018 in memory of Cecil Taylor; who had passed away earlier in the year.

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 March 2017, Nalbandian premiered a new composition, Heirloom, with his trio with Revis and Waits inspired by "Heirlooms and Accessories" by Kerry James Marshall after several viewings at both Marshall's retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and The Underground Museum.

Nalbandian has also composed and premiered music inspired by the work of Kerry James Marshall, Theaster Gates, Kara Walker, David Hammons, Arshille Gorky, Anne Scheid, and Garo Antreasian, who wrote of Nalbandian's work in his 2016 biography, Reflections on Life and Art.

Inspired by the intimacy and sparseness of Keith Jarrett's album The Melody at Night, with You, Nalbandian released his first solo piano album, Time Waits, on May 23, 2014. It consists of eight compositions, including a reworking of "Conflicted" from his album Manchester Born. The additional material includes "I Get Along Without You Very Well" by Hoagy Carmichael and popularized by Frank Sinatra, "Ugly Beauty" by Thelonious Monk, and "Motion Picture Soundtrack" by Radiohead. Time Waits and Alis Grave Nil consist of performances recorded at Nino Moschella's Bird & Egg studio.

Nalbandian's tenth album, Alis Grave Nil, is a follow-up to Time Waits. Originating from the same solo piano recording session as Time Waits; it was released on July 23, 2014. Alis Grave Nil (translated from Latin meaning "nothing is heavy to those who have wings") includes compositions by Nalbandian, Charlie Chaplin, Eubie Blake, & the first part of fellow LA-native Kendrick Lamar's song Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst from his album Good Kid M.A.A.D. City. The album artwork of both "Time Waits" and "Alis Grave Nil" feature paintings by Armen Nalbandian created only months prior to the recordings. Nalbandian has referred to both solo albums as "a requiem of my early career." Nalbandian contends "there is a great deal of symbolism throughout the first 10 albums and they are connected in many ways, AGN concludes the story."

On March 15, 2013, he released his 8th album, Surrounded by Snakes, a 13-song album consisting of original compositions that feature him in an experimental electronic setting with improvised solos. Nalbandian is the sole producer and instrumentalist on the album. The album artwork was designed by Joshua Asante of the Arkansas blues bands Velvet Kente and Amasa Hines. The album artwork was designed by Joshua Asante of the Arkansas blues bands Velvet Kente and Amasa Hines.

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 September 2009, Nalbandian appeared in the play Semblance: Notes from the Promised Land by Devoya Mayo. The final act of the play featured a soliloquy written and performed by Nalbandian, critical of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Nalbandian has made critical comments from the bandstand regarding America's proposed cuts to funding for the arts and its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, never addressing the administration by name.

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.

Nalbandian has often referenced the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat in his early work and song titles; compositions throughout his early discography reference specific Basquiat paintings and graffiti. Nalbandian presented a concert inspired by Basquiat's work in March 2008 during his tenure as Artist-in-Residence at the Fresno Art Museum.

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.

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 his 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.

From 2004 to 2008, Nalbandian served as the Artist-in-Residence/Music Director of the Fresno Art Museum, Artistic Director of Jazz @ the F.A.M., Artistic Director of the F.O.R.M. (Festival of Resurrected Music), and curator of the Rhythms of Art in which he composed concerts of original music inspired by the exhibitions at the Fresno Art Museum on a monthly basis. The programming also included educational components for children and adults, concerts which highlighted the music of jazz masters and supplemental concerts that focused on collaboration. While Nalbandian's first season musically focused on a primarily traditional foundation, primarily inspired by Duke Ellington, his approach and compositions for the following 3 seasons were highly inspired by the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Wadada Leo Smith, Bill Dixon, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill & The Art Ensemble of Chicago.

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.

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