THIRD INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL TO BE HELD ON JULY 16-17 IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, JULY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Third International Jazz Festival of
Yerevan will be held on July 16-17 at the Malkhas Yerevan club. State
Jazz Orchestra of Armenian Public Television and Radio, Armenian Jazz
Band, the Jazz Band of the 70-s, Artaskh Jazz Band, as well as the
US well-known Earth, Wind and Fire Experience Feat Al McKay AllStar
band will take part in the festival. The latter will first perform
in Yerevan on July 17 at the Aram Khachatrian concert hall.
As pianist Levon Malkhasian, Malkhas jazz club Chairman, informed
at the July 11 press conference, well-known Diasporan musicians,
saxophone-player Alexander Zakarian (Russia), duduk-player Levon
Minasian (France), pianist Artur Satian (Lebanon) and others will
participate in the festival. According to L.Malkhasian, a concert
of 4 Armenian jazz bands will be organized within the framework of
the festival.
The first Yerevan International Jazz Festival was held in 1998, the
second in 2000. According to L.Malkhasian, despite of a long interval,
jazz days have been held in Yerevan for already several years on the
initiative of the U.S.
Embassy. "The halls are crowded in these days, which was surprising
for me at first. They like jazz in Armenia and we will try to organize
this festival even if once in two years," the famous jazzman said.
According to Vazgen Asatrian, founder of the Jazz Band of the 70-s,
jazz originated in Armenia in the 1930-s. Artemi Ayvazian, Tsolak
Vardazarian, Konstantin Orbelian, Stepan Shakarian made a contribution
to the full formation of the Armenian jazz. "Though in the Soviet
years jazz was considered a bourgeois art, many people listened to
jazz, particularly, the generation of the 60-70-s liked jazz art,"
V.Asatrian said.
To recap, the tickets of July 16 and 17 concerts have been almost
completely sold, though the tickets of the first concert cost 2-10
thousand drams and of July 17 concert 10-30 thousand drams.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
