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A Human Being with Armenian Seasoning |
Posted by Zildjian on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 07:55 PM
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On the cold night of February 16 th , a small battalion of Armenian music lovers rolled around the Harvard yard, growing like a snowball, ready to follow anyone ready to guide them towards the mysterious Paine Hall. Brandeis University graduate student Teta Kokhreidze, 25, appeared at the avant-garde of the crowd despite her high heels, holding a plastic bag full of garlicky dumplings. She was in a hurry to deliver the snack to a friend who had rushed to the concert hall straight after work to save some good seats.
“This is my favorite moment,” she exclaimed. “It's like in the old Transcaucasian joke: ‘Seventh row, your dumplings are ready at the cafeteria!'”
Finally the group reaches the concert hall, where Kokhreidze's friend Gor Zakaryan has clearly lost his appetite for the fragrant treat: in the jam-packed concert hall, the only anticipated flavor is the multi-ethnic mix of Arto Tuncboyaciyan's Avantgarde Folk music. Keeping his promise, Zakaryan has reserved almost half of the fourth row.
“Armenian is my flavor, but my nationality is Human Being,” says the 50-year-old multi-instrumentalist whose performance in Cambridge commemorated the slain editor of Istanbul's Agos newspaper, Hrant Dink. The event was co-sponsored by Harvard University Center for Middle Easter Studies. Tuncboyaciyan and Dink were personal friends.
"They didn't just kill an Armenian, they killed an ideology,” said Tuncboyaciyan about Dink's assassination. Referring to the overwhelming pro-Armenian reaction to the killing among Turks, he argued that neither religion nor culture had anything to do with it. “People came together not because of religion or culture. They came together to show that the ideology of peace among human beings can never be killed,” he said. Seeing the wave of support for Armenians rising in Turkey, Tuncboyaciyan says he can finally feel comfortable naming it as his place of origin.
Born in the small Anatolian village of Galateria near Istanbul, Tuncboyacian said he experienced the ethnic divide first-hand as early as in elementary school. “Imagine being six years old, and the history books saying we are all enemies. The only thing I can remember is thinking, ‘how am I going to make it home?'” He says that six-year-old kid lives in him until now.
Following the footsteps of his late brother Onno, Tuncboyaciyan became a well-known musician in Turkey and around the world playing the drums, sazebo and duduk. His trademark sound, however, is the avant-garde whistle-song of a coke bottle combined with some non-nonsence mighty vocals. Add a sophisticated drum set, and you get a one-person orchestra.
At the Harvard concert, one audience member said he expected to see a whole band, but was stunned to find out the source of music fading in from backstage in a single person. Tuncboyaciyan sings in Armenian, Turkish and his own language – a vocalization of the rhythms and tunes that he hopes “everyone will understand.”
Tuncboyaciyan left Turkey at the age of 24 to explore new artistic opportunities in the United States. Since settling in New York City, he has recorded dozens of CDs and performed in solo concerts and collaborations with musicians such as Paul Winters, Al Di Miolla, Joe Zawinul, Nora Jones and the California-based Armenian heavy metal band, System of a Down. Finally in 1998, Tuncboyaciyan created the 12-member Armenian Navy Band in Yerevan, which won the 2006 BBC World Music competition in the Audience Awards category.
Tuncboyaciyan perceives his Armenian heritage as a “seasoning to humanity.” He argues that Armenians tend to see culture as genetically inherent, whereas in Turkey, culture is more of a forced ideology: “What I mean by that is that if you take out certain cultures from Turkey, for example - Armenians, Kurds, Assyrians, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians, Bosnians, Azeris, Arabs, Gypsies, Berbers, Ajars and others, then what is left of Turkish culture?”
Tuncboyaciyan says he carries his Armenian identity without difficulty or pressure because it lives within him and comes from his ancestors. The Turks, he says, have to claim identity through ideology, which is why they often react to things negatively. Tuncboyaciyan says he receives threatening phone calls every time he visits Turkey.
“I might be angry at the moment, but I don't carry hate,” said Tuncboyaciyan. “We need to gather together to find one central ideology which I call being a good human being. We don't have to like each other, but we must learn how to accept each other with respect for who we really are."
Gayane Torosyan
http://www.hetq.am/eng/culture/0704-arto.html
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Comments
yoner
01.05.07, 22:19
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1st. And this has not much to do with System.
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AK
01.05.07, 22:54
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i love arto. i sill havet herd the song he wrte for Hrant, but i have hard its beautiful
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Yumatira
01.05.07, 23:57
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Idd Yoner, but it has something to do with the AG (I guess ;) )
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poisonedangel7
02.05.07, 00:06
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The song is amazing as is Arto. Great article.
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luiz_felipe024
02.05.07, 00:32
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i love Arto's songs.. so much spiritual.. it turns me alive..
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AG
02.05.07, 03:50
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good article.
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PlexyEren
02.05.07, 22:04
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I didn´t know he sings in Turkish,too. And that he is well-known in Turkey...Well,I don´t think so. I´d like to hear this song he made for Hrant Dink...I almost cried when I heard,what his wife said aftzer his death...No anger,nothing,she was just...Oh,can´t explain...Forgivness...
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revanus
03.05.07, 19:00
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I saw him here in Turkey. He's amazing. Truly an awesome musician, and with a great sense of humor too. He drew a big crowd in Ankara, and I hear he's well-known in Istanbul.
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tiffanyevett
06.05.07, 19:03
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i luv arto's song aswell, it's not that bad, i think it is a good article aswell :)
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diamondgrrl60
07.05.07, 01:25
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Arto is brilliant... thank you for the article. Where do I find the song for Hrant Dink??
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