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ra grew up in the USA and went to an American uni- versity, but he carries within him the sounds of the particular area of Armenia where his family is from. When he first composed music, it was something that went fairly unnoticed in America but in another part of the world and in Greece in particular “they understood [my music] and received it better than in my own home in the United States. And it just confirmed this brotherhood, this kinship; throughout history we’ve kind of had a parallel history, like you said, the good times and the bad times.” But it wasn’t only in Greece. In Turkey, Israel and in Arabic countries as well everyone was going crazy for his songs, with lyrics being written to his compositions in over a dozen different languages. Ara brought the oud and the traditional folk sounds of Armenian music to these countries’ folk and mainstream song.
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Yet he is not comfortable with saying he writes the music. “I consider myself more a song finder, as if the songs already exists. If it is quiet and if I am concentrating I might hear it and that’s been confirmed to me because the best songs have come in their entire- ty, in other words I didn’t have to work.” So it’s clear now where his new album’s title Finding Songs stems from. Ara recorded the album in Greece with Greek musicians Vangelis Karipis, Yannis Kir- imkiridis and Sokratis Sinopoulos (fRoots 355). He says it was time to pay homage to Greece which has embraced him and his music, from the very start. “Because of that great welcome they gave me, I decided I wanted to record my next CD in Athens, especially con- sidering the difficulty they’re going through financially with this crisis. Of course I don’t think it’s going to solve or do anything but it’s more of a symbolic gesture of ‘I appreciate what you’ve done for me, I hope for your rapid recovery and just want to show my support in my own way.’”
Performing at the concert in London it’s the very same quartet on stage, although Sokratis Sinopoulos walks in much later due to heavily delayed flights. The show starts without him and it’s only when he finally gets on stage with his politiki lyra that the sound is complete. The lyra lifts the oud to a totally different level and it becomes clear why Ara has chosen these three to form his ensem- ble. “Not that I was specifically looking for Greek musicians, I’m not Greek, I was just looking for the best musicians and I found them. On a personal note, not only are they masters of their instruments, they’re gentlemen, they’re modest, they’re friends, they’re dedicated hard workers.”
In the hands of Sokratis Sinopoulos and Ara Dinkjian, their individual instruments come to life, as dancers, singers and amaz- ing conversationalists where one picks up where the other leaves off. Some of the most treasured moments during their concert are interplay between the oud and lyra that you wish would never end.
Ara has also recorded the album Conversations With Manol
recently. This record is a tribute to the Greek oud maker Manolis Venios, hence Manol, who is “universally known as the Stradivar- ius of oud makers,” Ara tells me. Ara took his 1907 Manol oud and without any preparation improvised for about an hour in his friend’s studio. What he hadn’t realised was that he had recorded his next solo album. He had just gone into the studio in order to play oud for a poet who had wanted to read some poetry to the oud in the background and instead out came instead the story about this particular oud. “The oud, who had played it, where it had travelled, because this is not an oud an amateur would have purchased, this is a real instrument for a great player.” It’s the oud telling Ara the story of its life, so Conversations With Manol is a tribute to the instrument maker.
As well as the traditional and folk music strongly evident in his own repertoire, Ara Dinkjian has explored the other possibilities of the oud, travelling into jazz and fusing it with the unconven- tional in his group Night Ark, which included Arto Tunçboyaciyan. Whether staying true to the folk roots of the oud and Armenian music or going down the jazz route, Ara manages to transfer the history and culture of his people into his music. There is something deeper there, the sad tone and the ability of Ara’s music to touch the soul of so many people worldwide, whether Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Arab or Israeli.
“If I was to deny my Armenian identity because I am in the States that wouldn’t be honest, but by the same token if I was to deny the fact that I am an American, not only in my own self but in my music, and try to somehow be a museum piece of Armenian folk music in New Jersey, well that would be a lie too. The music would indicate that there was something insincere about what’s happening. Just to get technical for a second, I’m combining the
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