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Armen's, Mike's & John's Page
The first of many facets of our violinist/pianist.
Armen Boyajian, jazz pianist and violinist
Armen Boyajian is a jazz violinist and pianist born in Chicago in 1954. He grew up in Binghamton, NY and began studying violin at age 7. At 16, Armen attended a Miles Davis concert, which led him to learn and play jazz. He attended the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music. On electric violin, Armen formed his first jazz quartet in 1972 in Rochester, NY.
He moved to Washington, DC in 1978 and began playing with young musicians and future jazz stars such as guitarist Paul Bollenback (Joey DeFrancesco) bassist Ed Howard (Bob Berg, Roy Haynes, Randy Brecker), pianist Frank Kimbrough (www.jazzcollectice.org), and drummer Steve Williams (Shirley Horn). With Kimbrough, Howard, and Williams, Armen formed Air Apparent in 1980, with Armen on electric violin. The group played at Blues Alley, Concerts on the Canal, and Carter Barron Amphitheater. Beginning in 1982, the members of this group were playing with national artists. Following are excerpts from reviews of Air Apparent:
"(Air Apparent) has improved drastically in the past two years they gave a performance that was the next best thing to an evening at the old Hot Club of Paris." (Harry Sumrall, Washington Post, 1981)
"You might not expect a violinist to be playing such numbers as Giant Steps, but Mr. Boyajian does so lovingly and with considerable elan'." (Tim Warren, Baltimore Sun, 1986)
While Armen had always used the piano as a compositional tool, in 1986 he began focusing on the piano as a performer, between 1986 to 1989, he led a quartet at the Hyatt Regency with vocalist Sheila Ford. During that period, Armen also worked with Gary Thomas (John McLaughlin, Miles Davis) and the late bassist Vince Loving (Special EFX, Randy Brecker). Armen moved to Augusta, Georgia in 1993 and from 1997-2002 he led Air Apparent as the regular Saturday night band at Augusta’s historic Partridge Inn. Air Apparent continues to play in trio and quartet settings for private and public engagements. Armen has worked with Eric Hillman, Wycliffe Gordon of the Lincoln Jazz Center Orchestra of New York, Greg Alewine-bassist (Warrior bass clinician), Erik Hargrove of James Brown, David Weston and others in the Augusta area. For further information, please call Armen at 706-373-0695 or e-mail him at armenb@comcast.net
Honors & Awards: Air Apparent was named Best Jazz Band in the Augusta Magazine Readers’ Poll (2002) and Best Dance Band (2001). Armen’s original composition Waltz for Bill won best jazz composition by Washington Area Music Writers Association in 1980. Other original compositions include Samba D'Outono, Blue Reggae, Daughters of Rachel, Air's New Improved Blues, and Air's New Country Tune.
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This is one of my favorite images
This is my good friend Hal. Hal rocks! I took this picture on his birthday. I think he likes to be in pictures.
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Excerpt From Mikes First Newsletter of 2002
Mike has arrived on the music scene again after a twenty plus year hiatis. His first very successful road band , "Wiskey Road Band" 1974, named after a very trendy Aiken, SC neighborhood thoroughfare. They set the eastcoast afire for over a year. They played from Virginia to south Georgia. Their music was a reflection of Mike today and the other band members. They played songs by Foghat, Savoy Brown, Allman Brothers, the real ZZ Top, Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer, Wishbone Ash, and The Who (Won't Get Fooled Again), when those groups were just starting. Steve Morse was just cutting his teeth. Mike was studying McLaughlin, Corea, Miles, Cobham and a whole new level of playing during those times. David Horvath, the pianist who held a classical piano degree form a private college, Newberry College, SC, had studied with a Juilliard trained pianist. His dad said of David as a kid that his teacher never had to wait to hear the lesson the next week. David played it correctly before he left the lesson. Mike asked David to show him music theory after they started to learn "You Gotta See the Show", ELP. There were a lot of scales in the solo he did not understand why they worked. This spurred an interest in university training. The University of Miami was the only choice when he read Down Beat Magazines college accessments in 1975.
Mike had spent thousands of hours in while in high school learning Hendrix by wrote. He had amassed over 30 bootleg and retail albums and knew most by heart. The Cry of Love was his first and favorite.The songs Voodoo Chile and Machine Gun were favorites also. Nobody played Midnight but he did an awesome version! He took his guitar to Palmetto Boy's State. They called him Hendrix.
When Mike attended the University of Miami he was first overwhelmed by the talent his first two years. It was his next year in 1981 that he really made connections. He played and recorded with many to be famous musicians. most visible probably was Dag Kohlsrud. What struck him about Dag was that while being from Norway, after only a few days in Miami, he was able to be surrounded by the most gorgeous blonde Norwegian women. He always wondered if he had them flown in. He was a rock star in Norway already. His step dad, a friend of Mike's dad, co-owned the Bank of Sea Island, GA. Dag was a monster jazz fusion pianist/composer. He could have made his mark on the fusion scene if he wanted instead of AHA.
Mike and Dag one time traded lines in the Foster practice room. Dag was just a little faster than Mike. When Dag got to Miami, he had Bob Moog set up his rig, but he sent his special Rhodes piano to California to be tuned. Well, when he got it back the guys told him send it to Ft. Lauderdale. It was out of tune from the trip. Any new American could make that mistake. Thats like sending it from London to Rome and back.
Stay tuned for more!
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This is one of my favorite images
This is my good friend Hal. I took this picture on his birthday. I think he likes to be in pictures.
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This is one of my favorite images
This is my good friend Hal. I took this picture on his birthday. I think he likes to be in pictures.
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