ELIZABETHTOWN — Joel A. Martin, “The Bentley,” returns to Piano by Nature with his six-year project, “Jazzical Komitas — Passion of Fire.”

The Connecticut-based pianist, producer, composer and arranger performs two concerts, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. at the Historic Hand House in Elizabethtown.

“I discovered the music of Komitas of Armenia by accident,” he said.

“I was at a Russian-Greek-Armenian party, and after I played on their piano for about 30 minutes of jazzical music, which is the marriage of classical and jazz, this Armenian woman (Emma Arakelyan) walked up to me and said, ‘Wow, you play jazzical so well. You should be playing Komitas.’ and I said, I didn’t know. ‘What’s Komitas?’ She said, ‘Oh, no, it’s not a what, it’s a he.’ Then she kind of gave me the third degree.

“It was a very pleasant experience, and I learned all about this Armenian monk named Komitas who witnessed the genocide firsthand, but not before he went into every village in Armenia and painstakingly wrote out some 5,000 of their ethnic folk songs, thus, preserving over two-thirds of this for eternity.

“In the Armenian world, Komitas is considered the spiritual leader of the cultural and artistic side of this country.”

For Martin, Komitas was an interesting story, but he resumed his regular heavily scheduled life of appearances and recordings.

Three months later, Martin performed for a Central Asian-themed concert in New York City.

“All of the opera singers sang all of these huge arias,” he said. “This one Armenian mezzo-soprano walked out and sang a one-and-half-minute song of Komitas. I sat in the back of the room and said, ‘My God, what is this?’ I just never heard anything so simple but yet so beautiful and full of life and energy.

“It’s usually all the things that you don’t think of in a simple song, especially a folk song. But, I certainly felt this.”