Collectif Medz Bazar - the best new thing since sliced basterma

A short time before Christmas I saw a video on youtube that was nothing short of a revelation. All I could tell for sure was that these were young French-Armenians and they were rapping about some type of Turkish or Armenian food called "Kokorech."

To those that knew about Collectif Medz Bazar long before me, I apologize that I am late to the game, but more importantly WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME ABOUT THEM!!!

I have to say, this is one of the most creative, wonderful expressions of music and art by young Armenians that I have ever seen. 

In recent years we have seen many young Armenians coming up with new ways to express themselves in the realm of music. Until I saw this video, there were very few of these musical expressions or artists that I felt an identification with. Without naming names of other artists, it seems most young Armenians who try to do something "new and different" from traditional Armenian music, either modify the dance music with house and techno beats and/or too much keyboard, or try to take the purist canonical Armenian songs of Gomidas and others and perform them in some funky, hipster-ish style such as acoustic guitar, jazz fusion, classical guitar, a capella singing, etc. 

Neither of those styles did I identify with, although sometimes I enjoyed them. But Collectif Medz Bazar (whose members, apparently are not all Armenian but Armenian, French, Turkish, and other ethnicities living in Paris) has created for the first time, music that was new and different, but which also resonated with me. (Of course, my first love is the kef music of groups like the Kef Time Band or Onnik Dinkjian, but that music is not "new and different.") Medz Bazar has created music that is new without trying to compete with clubbing music, that's Armenian without being inside the box 100% certified by Gomidas, that has the Turkish and all the other influences. And it has authenticity, and the spirit of being a young Armenian in the Diaspora.

Let's take the video...from the opening scene where everyone is waking up, sleeping under Armenian style afghans or "medz mayrig blankets" as I called them growing up (and we owned several), to the scenes walking through the streets of Paris, going to a restaurant, dancing in the street, I loved this video. The style of the whole thing, both music and video, was to me above all AUTHENTIC. It was not posturing and trying to be cool or badass or hipster like some of the other artists that have come along. These young people seem to be GENUINE and really having FUN with the music and the video they created. At the same time, they created something of high quality.

I have never eaten Kokorech before but that's not the point. The scenes dancing in the street and going to the Turkish-Kurdish restaurant reminded me, when I watched the video again today, of my days only a few years ago in college at the University of Michigan, where I spent most of my time with the other members of the Armenian Club. Mostly everyone was Armenian, but people would bring their non-Armenian friends to hang out with us, and they loved the Armenian (or Anatolian, or Mediterranean, or Middle Eastern) lifestyle and socializing. Our friends were Anglos, Greeks, Turks, Jews, Indians, and other ethnicities. I remember times dancing in the streets of Ann Arbor, parties at our apartment where we drank ouzo, ate our own homemade shish kebab and pilaf, or beoregs I brought from home, and played the CD "Kef Time Detroit" at full volume. I'm pretty sure I even had a medz mayrig blanket. There have been times we did the Michigan Hop in the streets. The Kokorec video reminded me of just that same lifestyle that we lived. 

I also listened to the entire album of Medz Bazar, entitled "Kokorec". A brief run down of the album:

1. Kokorec - See above

2. Jarnana - Getme - Ok, apparently this song is in Albanian. I had no idea what language this was at first. Then they sing a really catchy song in Turkish, that sounds basically like a Hayastantsi pop song minus the keyboard. But I mean that in a really good way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa4T-NOf9ic

3. Dolama - This song was really cool. It also has a music video. I like how they are lying around and then decide to sing this off-meter song in Turkish. Really nice clarinet solo in the beginning of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7sIYCZe_nA

4. Akh Im Anoush Yar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA26jtSCxWY

This was cool as they did this classic Armenian song in Armenian French and Turkish. Even the Armenian lyrics are new as far as I could tell. 

5. Al Ayloughs. They basically did this classic Armenian folk song straight but they nailed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnpoWUHyPww

6. Ayayay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noloriaD5go This one was in French and it also had a European or French style to it.

7. Yelnink https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfp8wyy34es

This was a heavy Armenian folk song that sounds like it's from Moush or somewhere like that. I noticed the influence from the Kotchnak and Akn singing groups, which I didn't mention but two of Medz Bazar's members are the children of the leaders of those groups. Obviously they inherited the talent. 

8. Leylum Le Le https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-PrZv3s3iE

This was really enjoyable. I remember this song from a Shoghaken album. They killed it on this number and then added in a Kurdish (?) song in the middle for good measure. This is a great Armenian dance number. 

This post is really getting too long, but I have to also at least mention two other things. "Notre Patrie" in which the group sings about the confusing relationship with the homeland and the Diaspora, as well as political issues in Armenia, especially as huge numbers of Diasporan youth descend on Armenia each summer. This one I couldn't relate to quite as much as I've only been to Armenia once (though it was in the summer pretty much as they describe) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u8xvw_hN28 

And 'Ariur Ar 'Ariur, in which the main singer raps about being an Armenian in the Diaspora. I really can't go in depth about all the things he brings up, but suffice it to say, he's poking fun at a lot of ideas that are held by many Armenians (i.e., hating the Turks) and also showing the conflicts we grow up with as Armenian young people in the Diaspora, again it really resonated with me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txv_EnPpOhc

In summary, I can't believe it took me a year and a half to discover Collectif Medz Bazar, but I am so happy that I did. This music completely speaks to me and I'm sure it will also to many of you. To me this is a truly authentic group giving voice to the youth of the Armenian Diaspora, and not just Armenians but others as well! From a fellow young Diasporan Armenian musician, I wish the best of luck to the members of Collectif Medz Bazar and I hope they create another album, and I really hope I get the chance to see them perform one day. 

HARRY

Ode To The Gamavors

Karekin Proodian - Gamavor Zinvor by Harry Kezelian

Hello everyone, the hiatus is over and "Kef Time U.S.A." is officially back in action.

Today's recording, "Gamavor Zinvor" is in 10/8 time and is sung in Armenian by Karekin Proodian with oud and violin accompaniment. (The oud is possibly played by Mr. Proodian himself). This was originally recorded in the 1920's on M.G. Parsekian Records and later in the 20's pressed by Pharos Records, who seem to have bought out MGP (both were independent Armenian record labels). Note the nice taksim intro on the oud.

The lyrics are as follows:

Gamavor zinvor too yes - You are a volunteer (gamavor) soldier
Verkis palasan too yes - You are balm for my wounds
Amen kisher kez g'erazem - Every night I dream of you
Srdis hadoruh too yes - You are a piece of my heart

Yes ullam, yes ullam, hop! - I want to be, I want to be (hop!)*
Koo dadragut yes ullam - I want to be your turtledove
Asdoodzmen meg moorad g'oozem - I want one wish from God
Hureshdagut yes ullam (2nd time: nushanadzut yes ullam) - That I should be your angel (2nd time: that I should be your fiancee)

Guh kales zinvori bes - You walk like a soldier
Getsvadzkut usbayi bes - Your stance like an officer
Ches garogh kudnel aghchig muh - You cannot find a girl
Vor kez sire indzi bes - Who would love you like me

Yes ullam, yes ullam, hop! - I want to be, I want to be, (hop)*
Koo dadragut yes ullam - I want to be your turtledove
Yegeghetsin jermag koghkov - In church, in a white veil
Kovut ganknadz yes ullam - I want to be standing next to you

*Hop or Hopa is an Armenian exclamation similar to the Greek "Opa"

Although gamavor simply means "volunteer" in Armenian, it also has a specific historical connotation. The Gamavors were members of the "Armenian Legion" which fought under French command against the Turks during World War I. The recruits were made up mostly of the Armenian Genocide survivors of Musa Dagh, then living in refugee camps in Port Said, Egypt, and Armenian immigrants living in the US. Musa Dagh was a mountain with 6 Armenian villages just north of Antioch. When the Turkish Army came to deport the Armenians there, the Armenians had engaged in armed resistance and held out until they were rescued by a French battleship. The Armenian Legion fought notably in the Battle of Arara in Palestine and then, with other French forces, moved north into Cilicia, which they occupied while the exiled Armenians returned and declared independence. After a couple years, the new Kemalist Turkish army drove the French out and the (native) Armenians with them. This song is in tribute to those brave soldiers. It was later made popular by Mike Sarkissian - more information about Sarkissian and his version of the song is found on Prof. Leon Janikian's site, The Archive of Armenian Music in America. The song has proved popular and was recorded by John Berberian in '66 (instrumental only), the Vosbikian Band with the late Joe Vosbikian on vocals in  '97, and by Khatchig Jingirian in 2009 (in a 6/8 meter). The beginning of this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tTBF201BIU also features the song played by John Tarpinian and Souren Baronian, in a style similar to John Berberian's '66 version - on which Souren played.

Oudi Hrant and the Art of Taksim

Click the link to hear a "Husseini Taksim" played by Oudi Hrant
https://soundcloud.com/harry-kezelian/husseini-taksim-oudi-hrant

Taksim is a term for an improvised piece of music in the Near Eastern/Mediterranean tradition. The Eastern Armenians use the word "mugham" which when specified as an instrumental mugham, is basically the same thing as a taksim (there is also a vocal mugham). The Western Armenians whose tradition this blog is discussing use "taksim," as do the Greeks, Turks, Arabs and others (although spelled in various ways). I have also seen the word "Menanvak" which is a proper Armenian word meaning something like "solo piece of music." A taksim is something like a jazz solo, except in its classical form it is truly a "solo" with no meter, no chords, and no percussion backing it up. One person, playing one instrument, completely improvising a kind of melody.

The traditional genres of music, secular and religious, Christian and Muslim, in Greece and the Near/Middle East do not use scales in the western sense. Instead they use "modes" which to a layperson are basically scales, but in musicology there is a difference. In western music we also have modes, but we usually only use two: the major and the minor. Any scale called major, ie C major, D major, etc. is considered to be in the Major mode. In the near east, there are a ton of modes. The modes are called "makams"(various spellings) and have rules or guidelines attached to them. A traditional, classical taksim is an improvisation in a given mode, with "modulations" (transfers) to other modes, which follows the rules of the mode, and the guidelines of how to play a good taksim, but otherwise completely improvised by the musician, using no meter or rhythm (well some would argue there is a type of very long meter to it), and unaccompanied by any other instruments - as heard in the Oudi Hrant track attached to this post.

Blind musician Hrant Kenkulian (1901-1978), generally known as Oudi Hrant was a master of the oud (fretless lute) who was probably best known for his taksims. He was an Armenian born in Adapazar, a city close to Istanbul which had a large Armenian population before the Genocide of 1915. After WWI, Hrant's family settled in Istanbul. Hrant started out singing in the church choir, but soon moved on to the oud. He made his career in Istanbul, but he toured the US in 1950, and did a world tour in 1963 to Paris, Beirut, Greece, America, and Yerevan, Soviet Armenia. He was a teacher of many Armenian-American oudists including Richard Hagopian. He was the pride of the Armenian people, and many consider him to be the most soulful oudist ever to emerge from Turkey.

Although Hrant played oud taksims in the classical style he was also an innovator known for introducing upstrokes in oud playing, which in its traditional form had only used downstrokes, as well as many other new techniques.

Besides the "classical" taksim as heard in the Hrant clip, there are other types and times where improvisation is used in kef music. For example, short taksims are very very often used as an introduction to a piece, as seen in this video where Richard Hagopian does an intro taksim on oud before singing the popular Chakaji Zeybek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux7D-iQPMvk
With introductory taksims, the soloist is often accompanied by the other musicians playing drones, trills, and drumrolls.

In addition to the introductory taksims, American Armenians usually take solos in the middle of their songs just like jazz or rock musicians, and these can be considered a type of taksim, called in Turkish "usullu taksim" (rhythmic taksim), but Armenian-American musicians generally refer to a solo in a song as a "ride," i.e. taking a solo is "taking a ride." Taking a ride is more improvisational than a rock solo, which is often rehearsed and prepared beforehand, but more restricted than a jazz solo, which in modern jazz basically goes all over the place while a "ride" will stay in the same key and basic scale or mode, even if the classical rules are ignored. Here's a video of America's greatest Armenian clarinetist, Hachig Kazarian, taking a ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOlioWh_AA. As you can hear, the other instruments are keeping the rhythm for him to "take a ride" on although the video cuts off when they go back into the song. The rides are what makes kef music really a middle eastern equivalent to traditional jazz. Here's another ride, played by John Berberian, one of the best if not the best living Armenian oud player: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVfxFE8MnTg

In traditional Classical Turkish music, taking "rides" was frowned upon and was considered a "gypsy" practice, although the traditional unaccompanied taksim (such as Hrant's) was highly regarded.

In eastern Armenian music, there is the concept of mughams which are basically the same as taksims. To be fair, here's a clip of an Eastern Armenian "mugham" played on tar, which takes the place that the oud has in kef music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTSEZ_oXDUM

These improvisations are one of the main things separating Armenian-American kef music from other genres of Armenian music, such as pop, classical, Soviet-Armenian folk music as played by the State Dance Ensemble. But as we've seen above, improvisation isn't restricted to Western Armenians, Eastern Armenian folk music also has improvisation. But in any case, the solos are half the reason that "kefjis" (fans or players of Armenian-American kef music) are drawn to the music. Why? In their improvisations, the musicians have a chance to show off their virtousity, but also to put their heart and soul into the improvisation which expresses their emotions and moves the listeners. For example, on the album Kef Time Fresno, there is a 5 minute long clarinet Taksim by Hachig Kazarian. In the liner notes, it says: "His plaintiff [plaintive] Clarinet Taksim closes the album and all the torment and persecution of generations of Armenians, gone by, are reflected in this beautiful closing number." A taksim or ride can express that, or anything else. The emotions of the musicians expressed in their solos are truly the "soul" of kef music. 

10/8: if you have to ask, you'll never understand

 The title of this posting is, of course, a play on Louis Armstrong’s famous response to the question “what exactly is jazz?” So what is 10/8? 10/8 is a rhythm used in Armenian music, but even if you try and count it out you probably won’t get it; it has a weird syncopation to it that those who haven’t grown up with it find it very hard to pick up (unless perhaps you are a professional percussionist). Here is a great example of a brisk 10/8 meter: the well known “Husenigin Sazera Medley” by (yet again) the Kef Time Band. (Richard Hagopian on oud and vocals, Hachig Kazarian on clarinet, et. al.) 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9vWNppTGA8

10/8 (as played in this song) is pretty much restricted to Armenian, Turkish, and Syriac music – and in the realm of Armenian music, it’s only used in Western Armenian kef music as played in America, and basically, not in any other genre. (They’ve never heard of a 10/8 in Armenia. There’s no sheet music with this rhythm either, outside of Turkey.) If you don’t have a very good feel for 10/8, for the swing and the nuance of the rhythm, you won’t be able to just get up and play along. And I find if you can’t feel the rhythm of a song, you’re not going to enjoy the song or understand why it appeals to others. Hence the title phrase of this post. But hey, prove me wrong. Just to be clear I’m not trying to insult the rest of the world, I just think that it’s hard to appreciate this style of song if you didn’t grow up with it.

Someone (I can’t remember where I read it) once described the 9/4 zeybek rhythm as “the soul rhythm of Smyrna.” I would call 10/8 the soul rhythm of the Armenian-Americans. Our favorite dance, the “shuffle,” is done in 10/8 rhythm. A lot of our dances are difficult, but doing the shuffle is like riding a bike – once you really have it in your bones, it falls into place like a beautiful I-don’t-know-what. I’ve been to so many Armenian dances I could practically do the shuffle in my sleep. It’s as if an Armenian’s heart beats in 10/8 instead of 4/4. But again, the shuffle is an Armenian-American dance created in America. It is unknown in the old country, or what’s left of the old country, to be precise. But does that make it any less Armenian? It’s as least as Armenian as William Saroyan, if not more. 

All our best and most important songs are in 10/8 rhythm, like “Hars oo Pesa,” (Bride and Groom) a folk tune hailing from Kharpert which has become the pan-Armenian-American wedding song (at least for those who have kef time music at their weddings). Here’s how it goes down in suburban Detroit. The wedding party, pinkies joined, waits outside the doors of the reception hall. The oudist plays an introductory taksim (basically an instrumental solo, but that’s a story for another post) and as the anticipation bubbles up, announces the bride and groom. Then, as the doors are swung open, the beat of the song begins – and the anticipation bubbles over and explodes, and relief sets in that, yes indeed they did get married! And joyfulness with a touch of familiarity, upon hearing that sweet, good old beat of the 10/8 rhythm, fills all the wedding guests. Upon seeing the new bride and groom dance into the hall to that beat, a sweet feeling of nostalgia for all weddings past and hope for all weddings in the future accompanies the joy for the wedding of the present. It’s practically a spiritual experience. 

I don’t have an example of “Hars-oo-Pesa,” but I do have a 1920s example of Husenigin Sazera (here entitled Ouy Janem, this is the Dikranagerdtsi version while the first example was the Kharpertsi variant.) The following will link you to Ouy Janem, sung by Karekin Proodian (with oud and violin accompaniment), an early Armenian immigrant musician best known for his composition of yet another 10/8, “Sheg Mazerov Er” (She Had Blonde Hair), which can be found on itunes on the album Kef Time Detroit. And without further ado, Mr. Proodian:

Ouy Janem - Karekin Proodian (click me)

The way to count it, if you really want to know, is 1-2-3 1-2 1-2 1-2-3 with the accent on each count of “one”. Except do it at double speed because it’s really not 10/8, it’s 10/16 and we just call it 10/8 out of convenience. But note that it is not 5/8 because it doesn’t repeat itself until you’ve done 10 counts.