Above pic – Zela Margossian… Photo credit Aren Gaspar
Looking back at the various concerts presented at The Lounge in Chatswood, which I’ve reviewed, it’s noteworthy that the music presented has generally been what one might call mainstream jazz. That is to say, as Google tells us, jazz that emphasises melodic, accessible improvisation rooted in swing, blues, and popular standards. More innovative music has not been much featured at this great venue – until this splendid concert which took place on March 26, 2026, featuring the Zela Margossian Quintet. This music was totally original from start to finish, consisting of impressive works written by Margossian, one of the most talented composers in Australian jazz. Her quintet sounded like no other group yet presented at The Lounge, at least in my recent experience.
The concert began with Margossian’s composition On Ya; note she used a typical phrase in Aussie vernacular to name this tune. I see this as an ironic nod to a new culture, as Margossian only arrived in Australia as recently as 2008. She was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1980, where she attended university and later moved to Armenia, where she studied classical piano, before coming to Australia.
From the first note played at The Lounge I felt that her music was imbued with gravitas. I was struck by the thought that I was hearing Serious Music, a now outmoded term which in the past was once applied to classical music, in a perhaps misguided attempt to promote the view that classical music had special qualities that separated it from other, less serious musical genres.
We can now see that the term Serious Music was inappropriate, but this outdated term occurred to me I think for a very good reason, as it highlighted an essential fact about Margossian’s music – that it’s highly original. It’s not the sort of jazz one hears every day. In fact it’s probably unfamiliar to the average ear, and therefore requires a listener of some sophistication, willing to be switched on to the complexities that are possible in modern jazz. I’m very glad to say that the audience in The Lounge on this evening – perhaps 200 or more people in a venue that comfortably holds 300 – was sophisticated enough to come to the party, and warmly appreciate the music presented.
Other than Margossian on piano, the quintet included Alexander Inman-Hislop (drums), Adem Yilmaz (percussion), Jacques Emery (bass), and Stuart Vandegraaff (wind instruments). There’s no doubt that this is a terrific band, full of excellent musicians, worthwhile testimony to the great virtue of staying together for many years, and developing a unique group sound while on the road. The quintet’s first album Transition, released in 2019, was nominated for an ARIA. At that stage its bassist was Elsen Price, but he was replaced by Jacques Emery in 2019 well before their second album The Road was released in 2022.
By that time the group’s main strengths were clear. First, Margossian’s huge talent as a pianist/composer/improviser, built on the three primary influences which impel her music: jazz rhythms and harmonies; Middle Eastern folk melodies; and the discipline engendered by her long training as a classical musician. (She once said that her favourite composers in classical music, other than Bach, were Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Pärt. That’s a pretty heavy list). Second, its formidable rhythm section, with Emery, Yilmaz and Inman-Hislop working together to provide a unique rhythmic foundation underneath Margossian’s compositions; and third, the authoritative interpretations of her music by Vandegraaff on saxophones and clarinet, whose playing has a distinctly Middle Eastern flavour.
In a nutshell the repertoire presented at The Lounge featured relatively well-known tunes from Transition and The Road, plus some enticing glimpses of tunes from the band’s new album Remedy, which will be released in May, 2026. Remedy promises to be something worth waiting for. The great trumpeter Phil Slater is featured as a guest artist on the track Indifferent World (which was played at The Lounge, with Vandegraaff taking Slater’s part). Also on Remedy there’s a reworked version of a track originally recorded on Transition entitled Waves; on the new album it’s renamed as Waves Unveiled. Other compositions from Remedy played on the night included In Flight (already released as a single in November, 2025) and Repentance (already released as a single in March, 2026).
As foreshadowed above, one of the most distinctive aspects of the Margossian band is the extraordinary combination of Inman-Hislop (drums) and Adem Yilmaz (percussion), working together to provide a scintillating rhythmic undercurrent to the music, a rhythmic sophistication that I feel is essential to Margossian’s oeuvre. It’s unusual these days for a major jazz group to have a percussionist, let alone one as brilliant as Yilmaz. Here, let me compliment the sound technician at The Lounge, Sercan Karakis, as everything played by Yilmaz and Inman-Hislop was crystal clear in the sound mix, and therefore highly energising. Also, as usual, the lighting was excellent, done on this occasion by lighting technician Madi Heesom.
Also, it was wonderful to hear Margossian’s work on the piano being amplified so well, so that we in the audience were brought very close to her music. I’ve said before that this is one of the most remarkable virtues of The Lounge; the fact that the sound is always magnificent. When it’s all said and done, music is only sound, so it’s salutary that so much attention is given to this aspect as a matter of course at this great venue.
Speaking of rhythmic sophistication, it’s notable that Margossian’s compositions cleverly disguise what are sometimes complicated time signatures. When I reviewed the album The Road in The Australian in 2022, I discovered that the title track has a recurring pattern: one bar of 4/4, two bars of 3/4 and one bar of 5/8. This was the second composition played at The Lounge after On Ya, and I found it an exhilarating experience. Sometimes when jazz groups use such unexpected and unusual time variations, there can be a jerkiness in the music that can be unsettling. The Margossian quintet however breezes through such rhythmic minefields with effortless virtuosity, with no sign of hesitancy.
Having said all this, it might be assumed that I found Margossian’s music difficult or inaccessible. On the contrary, I believe her music combines high art with what one might call commercial appeal. That is to say, her music is to my ears pleasingly melodic. Take, for example, her tune Devotion from The Road album, which was played during the first set. This is a lovely ballad, thoughtful and ruminative, which has an appealing passage where Vandegraaff plays a theme which is doubled in unison by Emery on bass. When Margossian enters and plays her solo, the piece builds up to something quite majestic. At the end of the piece, when there’s a silence before applause erupts, one feels that it’s a pity that the exquisite mood established has to be interrupted by the vulgarity of applause.
Two highlights in the second set are worth mentioning: The Child in Me, apparently built on Armenian folk melodies which date back to Margossian’s childhood. This was essentially a fun-filled composition which Margossian said “channels the children in us”. The enormous rhythmic propulsion built up in this piece indicated, if ever there was any doubt, that this quintet is basically a groove-based band, which at its best is capable of generating enormous swing.
Towards the end of the performance Margossian’s composition The Good That Exists, a lovely tune in three, reveals in my view not only her melodic talent but also the noble philosophies which underlie her music. At one point, after Vandegraaff solos on soprano sax, Margossian abruptly moves into a brighter figure which I understand is in the rather complicated time signature of 11/8. It continues under a virtuosic drum solo from Inman-Hislop. When the tune reverts to the slower initial theme, the tune finishes with a coda that I found enormously inspiring. Anyone who can write such an intensely beautiful work as The Good That Exists is, to my mind, an extremely gifted composer.
This concert took place at The Lounge in Chatswood on March 26, 2026, courtesy of support from Willoughby Council’s arts and culture program “Culture Bites”. It featured Zela Margossian, Stuart Vandegraaff, Jacques Emery, Adem Yilmaz and Alexander Inman-Hislop.
