Artyom at iArarat sent me an email yesterday with a link to the web site of jazz guitarist Al di Meola which details two concerts he is set to give in Yerevan in a week’s time. I haven’t seen any posters in Yerevan, but there must be some as a forum has posted one. What’s unclear, however, is whether the first date is a solo concert or not. One post on the forum says Al di Meola will be a guest performer implying that he will play as part of a much larger concert.

However, the prominence given to his name on the poster suggests that it is a proper concert by Al di Meola and Arto Tuncboyacian.

He will also be taking part in another concert in Republic Square which will also feature Tuncboyacian and the Armenian Navy Band. Interestingly, Al di Meola already has links with jazz in the South Caucasus. In 1995 he played guitar on Azerbaijani jazz artist Aziza Mustafa Zadeh’s Dance of Fire, and Tuncboyacian has performed and recorded with him in the past, including on World Sinfonia: The Grande Passion. Last year, Al di Meola performed in Baku as part of his European tour.

What’s confusing, however, is that the Al di Meola web site says he will be preforming in Yerevan on 12-13 September, while the forum and the uploaded poster says 12 and 14 September. Does anyone have any more information on any of this? If so, please post a comment.

A very big thanks to A. for finding the 1993 album “Always” by Aziza Mustafa Zadeh available online. It’s got to be the best album I’ve heard by any jazz artist from the South Caucasus and one of my favorites in general. That’s because Azerbaijani jazz singer and musician Aziza Mustafa Zadeh plays the piano like a dream on this album and manages to fuse western, eastern, jazz, classical and traditional influences to seamless perfection.

In 1993, Columbia released Always, where Aziza was accompanied by then Chick Corea alumni, Dave Weckl (drums) and the irrepressible John Patitucci (bass). The album roared through Europe, dazzling listeners and wowing critics. It was awarded the ECHO prize from the German Gramophone Association. Was the album pure breathtaking jazz? Never quite so. Aziza can never be put into a singular groove. She had already lit up the sky with her otherworldly interpretation of mugam, appropriated to the landscape of jazz! Azeri mugami harmalodics buffeted with the clash and crash of Weckl’s percussion pyrotechnoques and the deeply resonant pedal-point and ostinato of Patitucci’s bass. Mugam-jazz-harmolodia was born at the slender hands of the soulful Azeri pianist.

(more…)

While out shopping for more CD’s and MP3 collections yesterday, I couldn’t resist buying a copy of Dance of Fire by Aziza Mustafa Zadeh for a very good friend of mine. Saying this is bound to get me into trouble, but what the heck. My choice of present was greeted with approval from the young female shop assistant even though Mustafa Zadeh is perhaps Azerbaijan’s most famous contemporary jazz star. Of course, she’s fortunate enough to have a considerable musical pedigree behind her.

I was born into the world of jazz, and more specifically into the world of “mugam,” a form of traditional, improvisational music in Azerbaijan. It seems quite natural that I became a jazz performer with such a background. My father, Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, was legendary for his jazz improvisation. He became known as the founder of the Azerbaijani Mugam Jazz Movement that evolved in the late 60s and 70s.

In 1978, my dad represented the Soviet Union at the World Jazz Festival in Monaco and took first prize. Dizzy Gillespie, a famous black jazz trumpeter who had himself contributed so much to the modern jazz movement, used to say, “Vagif’s music is from another planet! It’s the music of the future!” And my mother, known as Eliza Khanom, is incredibly talented in music, too. She was one of the first to sing in the new mugam jazz style. How fortunate to have been born into such a family.

(more…)

After a meeting with yet another European academic visiting Armenia to research the Yezidi minority in the country I had some time to kill and decided to browse the CD/DVD shops on Yerevan’s central Abovian Street. Wasn’t expecting much as pretty much all of them stock the same tedious selection. Therefore, I was pleasantly suprised to find albums by Georgian born singer-songwriter Katie Melua.

Ketevan “Katie” Melua (Georgian: ქეთევან “ქეთი” მელუა) (born September 16, 1984) is a British singer and musician, born in Georgia and raised in Northern Ireland and England from the age of 9.

Her first album, Call Off the Search, was released in November 2003 and reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 to commercial success.

(more…)

Armenian Navy Band, International Children’s Day, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

As an excellent way to end International Children’s Day, Arto Tuncboyajian’s Armenian Navy Band opened a free concert at The Cascade in Yerevan. The group came second in the Europe Category for this year’s BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, but came first in the Audience Award Category.

(more…)

After recently writing about how culture — and music in particular — was being used to promote regional integration in the South Caucasus, I today received news that a jazz performance will be staged to tomorrow with the same intended objective. It’s no surprise to learn that the Open Society Institute is sponsoring the event and to realize that it comes less than two weeks since OSI sponsored the Rock Without Borders concert in Yerevan.

(more…)

After yesterday’s absolutely fantastic acoustic set by Bambir, it’s worth mentioning a few other gigs to look out for this week at Yerevan’s Stop Club. Tomorrow night, the V. Hayrapetyan trio will be playing, and on Wednesday, so will Armadam, another favorite band of mine. Excellent fusion of jazz and Armenian melodies although for some reason the electric oud was absent the last time they played.

(more…)

Armadam, an absolutely fantastic fusion of jazz and ethnic melodies, will be playing again at the Stop Club tomorrow evening. Starts at 9.30pm with tickets priced at 1,000 and 1,500 drams.

Bambir are once again playing at the Stop Club this evening. Show starts at 9-9.30 pm and will continue to midnight with a slight intermission. Tickets are priced at 1,000-1,500 AMD as usual.

(more…)

Armadam, the fantastic jazz group that even includes an electric oud, is playing at the Stop Club tomorrow evening. Well recommended for anyone who likes jazz and / or refreshingly intense music. It’s very easy to become immersed in their music, a combination of jazz fusion and Armenian influences.

CORRECTION: Armadam will be playing at Stop on Thursday 29 September.

(more…)

The Armenian News Network-Groong carries a very interesting and unexpected account from Noyan Tapan Highlights by Garin K. Hovannisian, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the founder and editor-in-chief of The Bruin Standard. That most people in Armenia have had enough of sky-rocketing corruption, the lack of the rule of law and democracy, I knew. However, I had no idea that it had spread to one of the city’s most “exclusive” hangouts.

At the table to your left, for instance, you might find a couple of university students prodding the case of Yektan Turkyilmaz, the Turkish historian who was locked up for two months in a National Security cell without trial. Or maybe it’s a group of tourists who’ve come to see with their own eyes that mythic bathroom where the president’s bodyguards beat and killed an impious citizen. “Privet, Rob,” he’d said. It could be a circle of brute-businessmen with appetites as big as their villas or it
could be a group of unsuspicious girls lavished in the latest Louis Vuitton. But they talk about the same things: October 27, Armen Sargsyan, rigged elections, and Northern Avenue.

Unlike the musings of the past, however, today’s sizzling political discussions are not mere laments and longings anymore. In the people’s sarcasm and metaphor, you hear clearly (for they are no longer in whispers) the sure notes of revolution.

Democracy. Freedom. Human rights. The Apricot Revolution. These are the roots of Paplavok’s intellectual lexicon–the trendiest echoes from the lakeside. With the excited company, the far-fetched music, the lush cuisine, and the romantic possibilities of night, the fiery exchanges convince us that a movement is being born.

Anyway, I agree with the conclusion. Unless the government cleans its act up by 2007, and if it attempts to falsify those parliamentary elections, there will be “revolution” in Armenia. The imminent local elections and constitutional referendum will be a first test but even so, many other issues such as corruption, the rule of law and the obscene wealth and political power of the oligarchs needs to be immediately tackled as well.

The full item can be read online here.

(more…)