Home » Jazz Articles » Extended Analysis » Aram Bajakian: Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the ...

Aram Bajakian: Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the Armenian Diaspora

By Chris May
July 20, 2011
View read count

Aram Bajakian: Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the Armenian Diaspora

Aram Bajakian

Aram Bajakian's Kef

Tzadik

2011

Itself born out of traditional music, jazz has over the last hundred years often enriched itself with folk infusions. In the 1930s, the Gypsy jazz of guitarist

Django Reinhardt

guitar
1910 - 1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Django Reinhardt enlivened the European scene. Contemporaneously, the country swing of bands such as Bob Willis & The Texas Playboys was doing the same thing in the southwestern US. Skip forward a few decades, and guitarist

Bill Frisell

guitar, electric
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Frisell was creating a strand of new Americana with his blend of jazz and country; while saxophonist

John Surman

saxophone
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">John Surman was doing something similar with English folk music. In the 2000s, West African and Maghrebi styles were widely borrowed by jazz musicians in Europe and the US; and some Scandinavian and, in particular, Norwegian, jazz has become so steeped in local folk music that an entirely new hybrid may be evolving.

There are many more examples, and the process is ongoing. Brooklyn-based guitarist Aram Bajakian, whose heritage is Armenian—the culture with which this album engages—is a welcome arrival in the lists. His playing experiences are manifold: he has performed and/or recorded with reed player

Yusef Lateef

woodwinds
1920 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Yusef Lateef, bassist

Jamaaladeen Tacuma

bass
b.1956

" data-original-title="" title="">Jamaaladeen Tacuma, drummer

Billy Martin

drums
b.1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Martin, guitarists

Marc Ribot

guitar
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Marc Ribot and Abdoulaye Diabate, and trumpeter

Hugh Masekela

flugelhorn
1939 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Hugh Masekela, among a rainbow of others. In summer 2011, he is touring Europe as part of singer/guitarist

Lou Reed

guitar
1942 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Lou Reed's band. Hear the roots-informed, avant-rock and jazz guitar work on Aram Bajakian's Kef, and you'll know why Reed hired him.

With Kef, Bajakian is exploring his Armenian musical heritage through its US offshoot, kef—a style developed by the Armenian Diaspora following the exodus triggered by the genocide waged by Turkey in 1915-16. Since its inception, kef has mixed together Armenian and western styles and instruments, in much the same way that Diaspora-klezmer has fused Jewish and non-Jewish traditions; in the 1940s, the Vosbikian Band went as far as stirring Armenian music into big band swing.

Aram Bajakian—© Cees van de Ven

Aram Bajakian

Armenian traditional music shares some harmonic and rhythmic characteristics with that of Georgia, its northern neighbor, and Greece, from which it is separated by Turkey. The synergies may come, in part, from the three countries' shared Christian heritage, on the borders of Muslim culture. But there are Turkish resonances too, along with ones from Iran, on Armenia's southern border. Melting pots pretty much began in the confluence of the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Levant.

Aram Bajakian's Kef is released as part of Tzadik's Spotlight Series, and sets Bajakian alongside violinist

Tom Swafford violin

violin

" data-original-title="" title="">Tom Swafford violin and Tzadik veteran, acoustic bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. The album rocks hard with visceral rhythms, gritty guitar work and gutsy violin. On "Sepastia" and "Raki," Bajakian—who names

Led Zeppelin

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page as a formative influence—gets as wild and dirty as you like, elsewhere reining back the attack to a looser, swamp-rock vibe. On "Hayastan" he brings a little Duane Eddy to the party, while "Wroclaw" gives a nod to Blumenkranz's part-Polish heritage. Bajakian shares the themes, and most of the solos, with Swafford, who, whether in bowed or pizzicato mode, meets him groove for groove. Blumenkranz's serpentine ostinatos add another level of interest, as do the consistently attractive melodies.

The dozen tunes are either written by Bajakian or arranged by him from traditional material. It is an exciting m��lange, which preserves kef's roots in providing music for dance, and broadens its stylistic parameters. It is no surprise that Kef has found a sympathetic ear at saxophonist

John Zorn

saxophone, alto
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">John Zorn's label, which has been taking klezmer, and other musics, into uncharted territory since the mid 1990s.

Touch this pot with caution, lest you melt your fingers.

Tracks: Pear Tree; Sepastia; Laz Bar; Sumlinian; Wroclaw; Karasalama; Hayastan; Raki; Pineta; Shish; 48 Days; La Rota.

Personnel: Aram Bajakian: electric guitar, acoustic guitar; Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz: acoustic bass; Tom Swafford: violin.

Photo Credit
Cees van de Ven

Learn more about our star rating system

Personnel

Aram Bajakian

guitar

Album information

Title: Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the Armenian Diaspora | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Unknown label

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Never Let Me Go
< Previous

Tarkovsky Quartet
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.