For Keyboardist Vahagn Stepanyan It's "A New Chapter"

A ten-year-old boy in war-torn Armenia confidently told his piano teacher that one day he would play with jazz and gospel luminaries. She instantly shot down his ambitions, but the boy remained steadfast and undeterred, responding defiantly “Mark this day on your calendar because one day it will happen for me.” Flash forward to the present day, a year-and-a-half after moving his family to Los Angeles to realize his dream, keyboardist Vahagn Stepanyan surrounded himself with Grammy-winning and world-class musicians, producers, and engineers to record his second album, the aptly titled “A New Chapter.” Stepanyan composed and arranged eight songs for the jazz fusion collection releasing May 19.

 

Stepanyan produced “A New Chapter” with Kitt Wakeley, who earlier this year won the Grammy for Best Classical Compendium for “An Adaption Story” to which Stepanyan contributed to engineering and playing keyboards.              

 

In the intervening years between those early piano lessons and recording “A New Chapter,” featuring performances by eleven-time Grammy-winning trumpeter Philip Lassiter (Prince, Ariana Grande), Grammy-nominated guitarists Greg Howe and Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy); platinum-selling saxophonist Dave Koz, bassist Ida Nielsen (Prince) and powerhouse drummer Eric Moore amongst other accomplished players, Stepanyan was classically trained in composition and learned the art of production. He began selling songs to Armenian artists and started playing in jazz clubs in his native land but learned hard-earned music business lessons by getting paid only four dollars if he was paid at all.

   

Stepanyan was gifted with a saxophone that he promptly sold to buy a computer so he could learn how to arrange songs. During a 2009 visit to the US, he was encouraged by the reaction to his masterful keyboard capabilities. Four years later, difficult circumstances left him without a keyboard to practice.

 

Undaunted, Stepanyan continued to believe and worked tenaciously, step by step, never losing sight of his goals. Today, he is an award-winning music producer, arranger, songwriter, film and television composer, and keyboardist who crafted an album destined to elevate him to elite status in contemporary jazz.

 

The first single released from “A New Chapter” is “Synergy,” which dropped last month and is accompanied by a teaser video that premiered in Times Square on April 25. The track is constructed of a complex rhythm, Moore’s aggressive and astute drumming, Lettieri’s piercing electric guitar, and rich layers of opulent horns that feature Koz playing soprano sax in a completely different context from which he is best known. Stepanyan adds melodic vocalization to the rocket ship ride that is “Without Limits,” granting the ensemble the autonomy to create free from restrictions. Anthony Crawford’s stratospheric bass solo leaps to the fore on an exploration featuring Lettieri’s fretwork.

 

Nielsen’s dexterous bass is given star status on “Motion,” which packs powerful horn section blasts, a scorching and gauzy electric rock guitar solo by Roy Ziv, and Stepanyan’s otherworldly synthesizer expositions. Howe and Lassiter topline “Gravity,” floating above the intricate swatches of multiple guitars and horns. Throughout “A New Chapter,” Moore’s knockout drumming dominates in impressive fashion, but he’s officially featured on “So Good,” which is illumined by Stepanyan’s imaginative keyboards and a screaming guitar solo by Feodor Dosumov and Melvin Lee Davis’s (Chaka Kahn, Lee Ritenour, George Benson, Gerald Albright) elastic basslines. Brazilian drummer Cleverson Silva and Venezuelan bassist Isai Romero add Latin flavor to the playful “Toy.” Silva remains to play on the explosive “Revolution,” this time in the company of Dosumov’s shredding guitar and Wojtek Pilichowski’s frenetic bass. Closing with a solo piece that was recorded in one take, Stepanyan exquisitely conveys the emotions of the challenges he’s faced in recent years on “Hold My Hand,” a contemplative, poetic, and cinematic beauty.

 

Stepanyan began writing “A New Chapter” while traveling through Arizona and into Utah where he visited Hanksville, a place described as “Mars on Earth,” the baren, mountainous backdrop that appears on the album cover.  

 

“It symbolizes the transition from one period of my life to another – a new chapter where you have to create, filling in the colors of life through your own imagination. This is a new chapter for me, and I don’t know where it will take me as an artist. But I do believe that in this new chapter, the best is yet to come,” said Stepanyan, who recently won two awards from the Akademia Music Awards for Best Jazz Songs for “Synergy” and “Motion.” “Motion” also won a Global Music Awards silver medal and garnered a nomination from the Hollywood Independent Music Awards in the Jazz (Fusion/Bebop) category.

 

Knowing that the process of recording “A New Chapter” would be transformational, Stepanyan documented the sessions in a five-part video series along with a teaser video that encapsulates the short documentary series. Each episode takes viewers into the recording studio and captures the musicians talking about crafting the album. As much as Stepanyan oozes respect and reverence for the virtuoso musicians highlighted on the project, they reflect back just as much admiration and accolades upon the keyboardist-pianist’s prodigious skills.

 

Although Stepanyan’s early training was in classical music, his muse has been jazz and gospel while incorporating world beat and global music nuances. He produced and collaborated on three volumes of the multicultural “The Ethnos Project” that were released in 2013, 2015, and 2018, truly international compilations that include up to fourteen languages. As a solo artist, Stepanyan debuted in 2015 with “Moonlight,” an offering of jazz, R&B, and funk that he produced. Amongst the talents from the US, Armenia, Brazil, Thailand, Israel, and Germany that performed on the album were Billboard chart-topping guitarist Adam Hawley, six-time Grammy-nominated saxophonist Eric Marienthal, bassists Crawford and Davis, and drummer Silva. In 2020, Stepanyan collaborated with Grammy-winning gospel singer Percy Bady.

 

Stepanyan has overcome towering obstacles to get to where he is and he’s done it on his own, trading on his extraordinary talents and unconquerable belief in himself. Stepanyan’s “A New Chapter” is a remarkable achievement in production, arranging, songwriting and musicianship as he sets out to create a new life. Its roots sprouted from the soil of belief that a determined ten-year-old had long before anyone else recognized his exceptional skills.       

“I still have goals to reach. Mostly, I want people to recognize me not only as a jazz musician but as someone who writes and produces pop, R&B, soul, lo-fi, funk, and gospel music as well as film soundtracks. If you have a dream, set your goals and go for it without any excuses. Never give up. Believe in yourself. Keep focused on your passion, work hard, and invest in your future.” 

For more information, please visit https://vahagnstepanyan.com.