When pianist Armen Donelian recorded his debut album Stargazer in 1981, he was hardly a newcomer to the jazz world. Having already played with Sonny Rollins and Billy Harper, he entered the studio with a vision of music that was both deeply personal and boldly exploratory. Alongside bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Billy Hart, Donelian crafted a trio statement that was at once lyrical, muscular, and strikingly original. For decades, the record remained a well-kept secret, pressed in Japan and never widely circulated in the United States. Its recent reissue, which includes a previously unreleased bonus track, feels less like a rediscovery than a revelation, more than forty years later.

The title track sets the tone: written after the death of Donelian’s mother and inspired by childhood nights staring at the stars, it unfolds with both tenderness and wonder. Gomez’s bass sings beneath Hart’s shimmering cymbals as Donelian shapes phrases that balance grief with awe. The trio’s chemistry is unmistakable, nowhere more so than on “Free at Last,” a performance so alive with risk and energy that it feels like an exhale of liberation. Contrast arrives in the contemplative “Silent Afternoon,” and in the playful, dancing rhythms of “Love’s Endless Spin.”

Every piece on Stargazer carries a sense of narrative drama, whether in the hard-driving pulse of “Monday,” launched by Hart’s explosive drumming, or the graceful sway of “Southern Belle.” The newly unearthed bonus track, “Queen of Light,” only deepens the story, weaving bluesy runs into a hypnotic groove that reminds us just how forward-looking Donelian was at the very start of his recording career.

Listening now, it’s clear that Stargazer was more than a debut; it was a fully formed artistic statement. Donelian plays not as a pianist seeking to impress, but as a composer-storyteller shaping a world of sound with two trusted partners. With its 2025 reissue, this once-hidden gem finally takes its rightful place among the most vital piano trio albums of its era.