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Introduction

Traditional Crossroads is a record company founded by Harold Hagopian. Hagopian started as a classic record producer for RCA Victor and he carried over his passion for Middle Eastern music from RCA to his own record company. He has a background in music production and instrumental technique from the Julliard School, and he utilizes that knowledge to create Traditional Crossroads recordings. He can clean up early 1912 recordings and make them sound much crisper and clearer using computer technology called the CEDAR system. CEDAR uses audio restoration processors and systems to preserve early recordings and help make them sound better; it digitally restores them of clicks, pops, and extraneous noises that are common among old records. Rolling Stone magazine praised Hagopian’s use of the CEDAR system when they said it provided "a sound clarity that makes it seem as if they [the recordings] had arrived, magically, out of a time machine."

Hagopian has travelled the world to search for rare Middle Eastern music, archive it, and re-master it for consumers in America. For example, he visited Istanbul to interview surviving women cabaret singers from the 1920s. With this information he was able to produce the Women of Istanbul CD that includes 40 pages of rare photos and information that comes straight from the source in Turkey. With Traditional Crossroads, he has taken great pleasure in sharing his archived Middle Eastern sounds, images, and lyric notes (with English translations) with the Western world.

Albums

Traditional Crossroads focuses on music from the Middle East and many other non-Western regions. The record label has re-mastered and provided both classically appreciated and current pop music in an effort to holistically capture the essence of a culture. The label’s albums each come with their own history in terms of culture and intriguing performers.

Armenian Artists:

Armenians on 8th Avenue: New York’s 8th Avenue scene in the early 1900s proved to be a popular place to hang out thanks to the exotic Middle Eastern music that was featured in the nightclubs. Beyond an “ethnic hangout spot” it quickly became a trendy place for celebrities and other high-class New Yorkers to visit. The 8th Avenue scene was composed mostly of Greek, Turkish, and Bulgarian musicians. The most prominently featured instruments were the violin, oud, and kanun, among many others including the clarinet, drums, and tambourine. Performers sang of erotic passion and the lyrics sounded like Middle Eastern poetry. The foreign sound and atmosphere attracted people to these nightclubs.

The original 78 rpm records coming from the 8th Avenue performers were released around the mid-1940s to early 1950s. Hagopian managed to digitally re-master many recordings of the 8th Avenue legends including oud master Marko Melkon, kanun expert Kanuni Garbis, Greek clarinetist John Pappas, Jewish violinist Nisham Sedefjian, “Sugar Mary” Vartanian, Madlen Arardian, Nick Doneff, and Garbis Bakirgian. The highly praised 22-track album Armenians on 8th Avenue released on September 17, 1996. The CD comes packaged with a 28 page booklet that includes rare photographs of 8th Avenue performers, biographical profiles, and lyric transcriptions are given in Turkish with an English translation running alongside them. One reviewer said that this CD “is a testament to music's most honorable capability: that of bringing peoples together.”

More on Armenians on 8th Avenue: The Eight Avenue scene was home to chic, primarily Greek-owned, Middle Eastern nightclubs (with names like Ali Baba), which collaborated with each other and with other recent immigrants to the U.S., including Arab, Greek, Eastern European, and Jewish musicians. At the time, the area was very reminiscent of life in the Middle East.

An overview of these “Eighth Avenue” recordings will reveal a sound reflective of the performer’s original origins in the Middle East. Interestingly enough, looking for signs of "Armenian-ness" in these recordings at first seems to be futile. Although these tracks are stylistically Turkish, with frequent use of takims and gazals, there is a sense of locality that isn’t truly represented. That locality, for these musicians, is their former home in Ottoman Turkey—not modern-day Turkey, not Armenia, but the multi-ethnic, hybrid place that, by 1923 (when the Republic of Turkey formed), ceased to exist. Evidence of this lost "home" is evident in the vocal improvisations, or gazeh, that take place in the middle of a number of the songs. From the musical style—the harmonic progressions, the melodic structure, the improvisational procedures—to the instruments to the language to the places remembered in the lyrics, the recordings point, at first glance, towards a musical style that is classified as Turkish. In addition, of all the instruments featured on the recordings, none are considered to be traditionally Armenian. The sampling of songs released by the Traditional Crossroads recording label are always classified under the "Turkish" label and, when it was released, received little to no attention from Armenian newspapers, journals, or magazines.

Turkey:

Alla-Turca featuring Özel Türkbas

Recorded in Istanbul in the 1960s, Alla-Turca is one of the most influential bellydance albums of the era. The CD features several famous Turkish and Turkish-Gypsy musicians, including Ozel Turkbas, Yilmaz Sanliel, and Tarik Bulut. The songs feature violin, clarinet, kanun, guitar, and various percussion instruments.

Göksel Kartal - The Art of Taksim

Göksel Kartal has toured throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States exposing audiences to the kanun. He has been recognized throughout the world as a Turkish virtuoso of the kanun, incorporating elements from Spanish Flamenco guitar technique to Western Classical style. His improvisation, or taksim, is featured on this CD.

Gypsy Fire Richard Hagopian, Yuri Yunakov and Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Gypsy Fire features older belly-dance hits performed by more modern Turkish, Armenian, and Gypsy musicians. This CD includes Richard Hagopian, who received the National Heritage Award, America’s highest honor awarded in the traditional folk arts. Also included are Yuri Yunakov, a Turkish saxophone player from Bulgaria, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Arto Tunçboyaciyan, and Ara Dinkjian of the famous band Night Ark.

Irish:

Ballinasloe Fair - Early Recordings of Irish Music in America 1920 - 1930

This album’s classic Irish songs include a wide variety of performers and musical styles. Both immigrant and American-born Irish musicians draw influence from the Irish countryside as well as Boston’s and New York’s music scene. Unlike many other albums re-mastered by Traditional Crossroads, these recordings were not taken from 78 records. Instead, they were modified from never-before-played metal masters of 78 records.

Iran:

Ardavan Kamkar - Over the Wind

This album consists of music from post-revolutionary musicians in Persian. It includes songs from rising stars Kayhan Kalhor and Ardavan Kamkar. Kalhor is a skilled kamancheh, or spiked fiddle, player. He has toured in Europe and North America. Kamkar is a Kurdish santur player who is a top classical Persian ensemble musician in Tehran. He also tours around the world with his family, the renowned traditional Kurdish music group The Kamkars.

India:

India World Library of Folk and Primitive Music Originally recorded in the 1950s by author, painter, and Hindu philosopher Alain Danielou, this collection showcases the colorful and varied tradition of Indian music. The album includes sacred temple songs, classical improvisations, tribal vocal melodies, and popular art music.

Kartik Seshadri - Illuminations

Kartik Seshadri is an internationally known sitar player from India. He is considered to be a child prodigy, displaying great skill from the age of six. In 1965 he met the world-renowned maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, and since then they did much work together. Seshadri has performed in major concert halls throughout the world, from India, Europe and the Middle East, to Japan, Mexico and the United States. He performs at several festivals in India such as the Sangeeth Nataka Academy, Sangeeth Research Academy (ITC Music Festival), Gunidas Sangeeth Sammelan, Madras Music Academy, and Saptak. In the United States and Canada, he has performed in Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, World Music Institute, and the Vancouver Jazz Festival. Seshadri is known for his expressiveness, rich tonal sensibility and rhythmic intricacy.

Gypsy/Hungary:

Kálmán Balogh - Gypsy Cimbalom Band - Live in Germany

Kálmán Balogh is a great Cimbalom player. On this CD he performs traditional songs with classical, jazz and folk musicians. Together, these musicians modern versions of modern dance music which Balogh calls Gypsy Jazz.

Greece:

The Road To Rembetika - Music of a Greek Sub-culture - Book & CD

Music of a Greek Sub-culture, songs of Love, Sorrow and Hashish by Gail Holst Gail Holst, Cornell Mediterranean Studies Scholar, wrote this book about musical style called Rembetica. Rembetica songs are about sadness, love, and suffering, and were sung in poor areas of Smyrna, Istanbul and Greece in the late 19th century. This style has been compared with American Blues. Both genres were created by outsiders who developed their own slang and forms of expression. Road to Rembetica is the first book in English to survey the “rembetes” who smoked hashish and danced the passionate, introspective “zebebekiko” to release their emotions. The book includes the lyrics to over 80 classic songs, and 40 photos of composers and performers.

The CD includes 17 tracks by the Legends of Rembetika, including performances by Sortira Bellou, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Kostas Roukounas, Rosa Eskenazi, Markos Vamvakaris, Stratos Payioumdzis, Yorgos Batis, Markos, Kalfopoulos and others.

Georgia:

Drinking Horns and Gramophones - The First Recordings in the Georgian Republic, 1902-1914

This CD features different types of music from Georgia sung before the Russian Revolution. The region’s polyphonic vocal music, usually associated with early modern Western melody, dates back to the 4th century. This style was found all throughout Georgian culture in the 1800s and early 1900s, from field songs to church music to melodies for celebrations.

Eastern Europe:

Alexander Fedoriouk - The Art of the Cimbalom

On this CD, Alexander Fedoriouk, one of Ukraine's famous cimbalom players, performs dance tunes and classic showpieces from Romania, Hungary and western Ukraine. He is accompanied by an ensemble of top Eastern European instrumentalists, who play instruments like the clarinet, accordion, and saxophone.

Cuba:

Cuarteto Tiempo - Cigar Music - Tobacco Songs of Old Havana

The band Tiempo is characterized by harmonically complex interpretations of Cuban classics. This album also features Juan Carlos Formell, son of the Juan Formell, who founded Los Van Van. Juan Carlos also performs regularly in New York City. The album includes songs by legendary songwriters like Jose A. Mendez and Narciso Cesar Portillo de la Luz.

Africa – The Gambia and Senegal:

Senegal - Morikeba Kouyate

Morikeba Kouyate is from Bounkiling, Senegal, and comes from a family of musicians and kora players. This family group is called a jali, and provides musical diplomacy, oral history, and entertainment to its village.

Morikeba quickly became famous in Senegal and later much of West Africa. He hosted a radio show based in Dakar, appeared on television, and performed for royalty. In 1991 he moved to Chicago and has since gained recognition throughout the United States. He received a 2002 Illinois Arts Council grant for the Master-Apprentice Program and was a 2003-2005 Illinois Arts Council Artstour artist. He was also given a City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) grant in 2003. He has played and taught around US at universities like Harvard, DePaul and Northwestern. Morikeba Kouyate has recorded two CDs. The first, “Music of Senegal”, was through Traditional Crossroads, and the second was called “M’Fake,” or “our father’s work.” Both albums were recorded in the US and included other West African musicians.

Papa Susso - Sotuma-Sere

Alhaji Papa Susso plays the kora and is part of a jali in The Gambia. His village, Sotuma-Sere, has a high concentration of musicians that serve the local government. Papa Susso belongs to the Madinka group, which is part of a larger group that is found in The Gambia, Senegal, and Mali. This regional music and Papa’s Susso’s songs focus on praise and history.

Afghanistan:

Afghanistan - Untouched

Traditional Crossroad’s 2-disc set of Afghani music covers a wide variety of styles. Ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin traveled around the country and recorded songs from urban and local areas, sung in many different languages. The music was recorded in 1968, just before the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

When Traditional Crossroads remade the CD, they made an effort to relate the pre-war music to the region’s current sociopolitical circumstance. Traditional Crossroads teamed up with School for hope, an organization that builds schools for women. It also supports the International Rescue Committee (IRC) – one dollar of every CD goes directly to the organization. The IRC has been aiding refugees in Afghanistan since the 1980s, and it continues to improve the country’s infrastructure.

Traditional Crossroads split the songs into two CDs. The first covers music from northern Afghanistan, mainly by Tajiks and Uzbeks. These songs were first recorded in 1968, before many main roads were built. Therefore, the music from different areas was much more distinct than it would become throughout the rest of the century. The second CD covers southern Afghanistan, from Kabul, Kazakh, and Turkmen. This region and its music are known for more Pakistani and Indian influence.

References

http://www.traditionalcrossroads.com/

http://www.answers.com/topic/cedar-audio-limited

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/armenian.htm

Diasporic communities and negotiated identities: Trauma, recovery, and the search for the Armenian musical voice by Alajaji, Sylvia, Ph.D., University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 2009, 242 pages; AAT 3376720

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?Ver=1&Exp=01-18-2016&FMT=7&DID=1877851511&RQT=309&attempt=1&cfc=1