“Gor”: It's okay to say it
by Paul Chaderjian
gor (noun) -- pronunciation: 'gOr, 'gor
1 : grammatically incorrect verb ending in Western Armenian.
2 : innovative musician, charismatic, acoustic Armenian folk star.
His name is blunt. Gor. Say it. It's okay.
Gor. Say it again. You can, you know.
True. Many frustrated Armenian schoolmarms and parents have scolded
students to stop tacking a gor at the end of verbs. It may be
grammatically incorrect, but it's also the name of the hottest music
act since [fill in the name of the last artist whose music you
downloaded].
Gor. Say it. Shout his name from rooftops, at church halls, and
kebob stands. Text message your friends. IM them with smiley faces.
Post his songs on your grandkids' myspace page. Swap music files.
Blackberry - or even blueberry or raspberry if you prefer - this
breaking news story.
Sync up your iPod, because now, “Gor” is a more than an error in
Armenian usage. It's the future, the present, a new age and new
beginning for Armenian music, and it's making a mark in the diaspora.
“There are a lot of Armenians who are ready to listen to new kinds
of Armenian music,” says Gor, “and I am offering them something new.”
New and exciting, something that's turning Generations X and Y on to
Armenian music.
Meet Gor Mkhitarian, former lead guitarist and second vocalist for
the hit Yerevan-based rock band Lav Eli. He taught himself how to play
the guitar, sang in the church choir in Vanadzor, writes his own songs
about life, love, about his struggles, about people living and
struggling.
gor (noun) -- pronunciation: 'gOr, 'gor
1 : grammatically incorrect verb ending in Western Armenian.
2 : innovative musician, charismatic, acoustic Armenian folk star.
His name is blunt. Gor. Say it. It's okay.
Gor. Say it again. You can, you know.
True. Many frustrated Armenian schoolmarms and parents have scolded
students to stop tacking a gor at the end of verbs. It may be
grammatically incorrect, but it's also the name of the hottest music
act since [fill in the name of the last artist whose music you
downloaded].
Gor. Say it. Shout his name from rooftops, at church halls, and
kebob stands. Text message your friends. IM them with smiley faces.
Post his songs on your grandkids' myspace page. Swap music files.
Blackberry - or even blueberry or raspberry if you prefer - this
breaking news story.
Sync up your iPod, because now, “Gor” is a more than an error in
Armenian usage. It's the future, the present, a new age and new
beginning for Armenian music, and it's making a mark in the diaspora.
“There are a lot of Armenians who are ready to listen to new kinds
of Armenian music,” says Gor, “and I am offering them something new.”
New and exciting, something that's turning Generations X and Y on to
Armenian music.
Meet Gor Mkhitarian, former lead guitarist and second vocalist for
the hit Yerevan-based rock band Lav Eli. He taught himself how to play
the guitar, sang in the church choir in Vanadzor, writes his own songs
about life, love, about his struggles, about people living and
struggling.
Among his influences, he lists William Saroyan, Moby Dick, the
Beatles, one Aaron Stayman [more about his later], and the Armenian
culture. “When I was growing up in the 1980s, bands like Pink Floyd,
Led Zeppelin, the Beatles were censored,” says Gor in perfect English.
“People couldn't find these records, because they were called
'bourgeois' or capitalist music. You simply couldn't find the music in
the stores.”
Gor's brothers scoured the black market and brought home bootleg
copies of Western music. He loved the sound so much that he formed a
rock band with his friends. “We were just playing and hanging out,” he
says. “We loved the music, so we decided to play and record some
covers, and that's how we started.”
Behind the Iron Curtain, influenced by the history of the era,
inspired by Western rock, and seeded with the sounds of Rouben
Mateossian, Flora Mardirossian, Rouben Hakhverdian, and
then-underground star Arthur Meschian were the sprouts of Gor's music
today.
What evolved from passion and love of music in 1995 was Lav Eli.
“The rock music we played was more like acoustic rock, more like the
Rolling Stones, the Dave Matthews band, that kind of music,” says Gor.
“Not too heavy and not too soft.”
Gor. Not too heavy. Not too soft. But blunt. 33. Tall, handsome, and
charismatic. A solo act for the past four years. Check the web. Google
his name. Search YouTube and Google Video. You'll be surprised by the
buzz, the praise from a dozen publications, and the honors from
Armenian and non-Armenian award shows.
Now click on his album covers on gormusic.com, use the iTunes Music
Store to download his previous albums and pre-order his
yet-to-be-released fifth album, “Acoustic Folklore,” from his
myspace.com/gormusic page.
“My work is all about Armenia, being Armenian, being a human being
in Armenia,” says Gor. “It's all Armenia, but with a lot of influence
coming from Western music. I'm trying to make a bridge between
cultures, especially between Armenians in Armenia and Armenians in the
diaspora.”
Exhausted are the half-dozen remakes every Armenian musician has
sung once and then again. Enough already. . . . Gor sings the classics
too, but not in that old-fashioned way. This isn't your grandmother's
Gomidas or your uncle's folk songs. Gor's music is Armenian music
reinventing itself.
This is the music drafting into the Armenian culture young, savvy,
cultured fans, the MTV generation with sophisticated tastes. It's
bringing back the comatose canon of oh-so-passé, circle-dancing tunes
from keyboard-generated duduks, oopman-doompa rhythms, wa-wa organs,
and drum machine-generated beats. [insert gagging noise here.]
Gimme a break. The folk that was dying a slow death is new again.
This is raw, new, and true. There is even a self-titled album, his
fourth, that's all English. Supporting his albums are cutting-edge
music videos, like one directed by Roger Kupelian. There are also two
documentaries telling the story of Gor in the Lav Eli days, and the
story of Gor making it on his own in the U.S., making it by making
fans fall for his music one song at a time.
Power up your iPod. Listen to the accordion, the base, acoustic
guitar. You're in a new world. A new age. Can you hear the violin? Can
you hear the flute? Those words in Armenian about a young man waking
up and understanding are poetic. Those heart-breaking words in English
are about the young man waking up in the shipping container he calls
home. These are the lyrics of the modern Armenian experience,
modern-day hayots badmutiun coming to life, words and music about the
unique experience of being Armenian.
Yo! You, the listener. Yo! You are special once again, in your
cocoon of an MP3 player, in your car, on the subway. Can you hear the
banjo? Turn it up. It's all there, and it's all Armenian, 100 percent.
Old folk and new folk, written, composed, and performed by a talented
musician from Vanadzor, whose chance meeting with a Bostonian created
the quantum leap in music.
“A friend of a friend, Raffi Meneshian from Boston, came to Armenia
for a few weeks,” says Gor. “We had a party, and I played the guitar.
Raffi listened and told me that he wanted to release my first solo
album - just acoustic guitar and vocals.”
The accidental meeting in 2001 led to the release of Yeraz by the
Boston-based Pomegranate Music label. That's how the legend began, and
it's caught on. What was recorded in bits and bytes was trail-blazing
Armenian music, fueled by the restless boredom and anxiety of a
culture sick of its parents' and grandparents' music.
In hotrods in New Jersey, on the freeways in So Cal, and on the 1
and 9 lines on the Upper West Side are random men and women listening
to revolutionary music, once underground, now energized by the rabid
getaway from years of take-me-seriously classical, estradayeen,
bee-bopping, Turkic rabiz, and whatever renovations of staid genres.
“The third album, 'Episodes,' is about episodes from peoples'
lives,” says Gor. “There are a few acoustic songs, just guitar and
vocals like my first album. There are also experimental songs with a
lot of different musicians like in my second album.”
Gor's second album, Godfather Tom, showed off the musician's uncanny
ability to take musical risks, mixing new instruments with his ancient
culture, using the cadence of the Armenian language with the backdrop
of Hillbilly, Rock, and Country all in one.
“If listeners like it, great,” says Gor about his music. “If they
don't, it's just a matter of taste. We're fine with that too. But I
think they're going to like it, because the new generation is looking
for something new.”
Gor is serving up original lyrics with pride. Candid lyrics.
Personal thoughts. “I don't want to remember what I did the night
before,” he sings, “but it's evident who I am.”
Now comes the fifth album, a return to his roots with folk songs,
while forging ahead with original creations. The album will be
released on Saturday, April 7, at Gor's CD release concert at the
Barnsdell Gallery Theatre in Hollywood. If you live nearby, get your
ticket on itsmyseat.com.
“The album is a limited edition, performed with acoustic guitars and
featuring Djivan Gasparyan, Jr.,” says Gor. Joining him on stage at
the Barnsdell, in addition to Djivan, Jr., will be several talented
musicians like Ara Dabanjian from the band Element and, drum roll
please . . . Aaron Stayman. [Remember his name from earlier in the
article?]
“I met my banjo player, Aaron Stayman, in Armenia,” explains Gor.
“Aaron was serving in the Peace Corps in Armenia. I saw him in
Vanadzor and Ijevan. He is a great musician, so we got together, and
we recorded this album. Since then, we've recorded several of my
albums with him.”
Gor says Stayman is his biggest musical influence. Stayman is a
medical student at Tufts and will be coming out to Los Angeles to
perform at Gor's CD release party. “Without him, my music wouldn't be
the same,” says Gor.
It's the old world meeting the new, the banjo-playing, future
doctor, Peace Corps volunteer meshing with the language of Mashtots.
The bridge between East and West. A liaison world music publications
are calling “Post-Soviet Alternative Folk Rock.”
But Gor is beyond labels. He's fresh. He's new. He's fun to listen
to, and he has the ethereal IT. Underground. No more. Gor is out
there, and his music is selling at Armenian record stores, on Amazon
and CDRama.com. Armenian music - Welcome to the 21st century, baby,
and turn the alarm clock off already.
“I woke up, I saw, I understood everything,” he sings. It's cutting
edge. It's pioneering. And it's unusually hip. Fans say Gor represents
a new generation of Armenians who are redefining what the culture
thinks of as Armenian culture.
“We started to sell my album 'Yeraz' not only in the Armenian
market,” says Gor, “but also on the Internet, Amazon, and CD Baby and
CD Rama, and we've had a good response from listeners. Some say they
don't understand any words, but they love it.”
Yeraz, his first solo CD released in 2002, fused the unique sounds
and lyrics of ancient Armenian folk music with modern rock and
sometimes, experimental sounds. The innovative and original
combination quickly garnered global attention, winning Gor acclaim
from all over the world, as well as accolades such as “best
alternative rock singer” and “best world music album.”
Thousands are now fans, chanting his name at small and large concert
venues in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, London, D.C., at UCLA, San
Francisco State University, Brown University, and Harvard. He has
played more than a hundred concerts since leaving Armenia, and fans
are sure more are ahead.
“The Harvard concert stands out as one of the more memorable
concerts,” says Gor. “It was in a very cozy venue, and the audience,
mostly non-Armenians, wanted to know about Armenians and Middle
Eastern cultures. We had questions and answers, and it was more than a
concert. I was able to tell them about my songs, the homeland, and
life experiences.”
Next month, Gor returns to the homeland after a four-year break. He
will join his brother Tirayr Mkhitarian and Mher Manoukyan, the other
members of Lav Eli, and the guitar-playing trio will play at Yerevan's
Avangard Folk Club on April 27 and the State Puppet Theatre on May 5.
“I want to see how much has changed in the past few years,” says
Gor. “Aside from seeing my family once again, I want to see the whole
scene, political, musical, social. I want to see everything.” Count on
his muses to visit and another set of songs about the experience of an
earthquake survivor seeing the aftermath of the political and social
earthquakes taking place since the shocker that hit at 11:41 A.M. on
December 7, 1988.
Wait. There's more on his plate. As always. There is Gor's
appearance at the June 1 Children's Day Festival at the Cafesjian
Center for the Arts at the Cascade in the heart of Yerevan. More than
40 thousand children and their parents are expected to gather at the
Cascade for the annual festival and concert. Among the headliners will
be none other than the man being celebrated in this article.
If the choice was Gor or no Gor, chances are you'd choose the
former. Why? Because it's new. It's fresh. It's addicting. It's Gor.
And he's got banjos and Gomidas on one expressionist musical canvas.
So show the schoolmarms the birdie and start saying “Gor” as many
times as you want. He's now part of the new Armenian lexicon.
Beatles, one Aaron Stayman [more about his later], and the Armenian
culture. “When I was growing up in the 1980s, bands like Pink Floyd,
Led Zeppelin, the Beatles were censored,” says Gor in perfect English.
“People couldn't find these records, because they were called
'bourgeois' or capitalist music. You simply couldn't find the music in
the stores.”
Gor's brothers scoured the black market and brought home bootleg
copies of Western music. He loved the sound so much that he formed a
rock band with his friends. “We were just playing and hanging out,” he
says. “We loved the music, so we decided to play and record some
covers, and that's how we started.”
Behind the Iron Curtain, influenced by the history of the era,
inspired by Western rock, and seeded with the sounds of Rouben
Mateossian, Flora Mardirossian, Rouben Hakhverdian, and
then-underground star Arthur Meschian were the sprouts of Gor's music
today.
What evolved from passion and love of music in 1995 was Lav Eli.
“The rock music we played was more like acoustic rock, more like the
Rolling Stones, the Dave Matthews band, that kind of music,” says Gor.
“Not too heavy and not too soft.”
Gor. Not too heavy. Not too soft. But blunt. 33. Tall, handsome, and
charismatic. A solo act for the past four years. Check the web. Google
his name. Search YouTube and Google Video. You'll be surprised by the
buzz, the praise from a dozen publications, and the honors from
Armenian and non-Armenian award shows.
Now click on his album covers on gormusic.com, use the iTunes Music
Store to download his previous albums and pre-order his
yet-to-be-released fifth album, “Acoustic Folklore,” from his
myspace.com/gormusic page.
“My work is all about Armenia, being Armenian, being a human being
in Armenia,” says Gor. “It's all Armenia, but with a lot of influence
coming from Western music. I'm trying to make a bridge between
cultures, especially between Armenians in Armenia and Armenians in the
diaspora.”
Exhausted are the half-dozen remakes every Armenian musician has
sung once and then again. Enough already. . . . Gor sings the classics
too, but not in that old-fashioned way. This isn't your grandmother's
Gomidas or your uncle's folk songs. Gor's music is Armenian music
reinventing itself.
This is the music drafting into the Armenian culture young, savvy,
cultured fans, the MTV generation with sophisticated tastes. It's
bringing back the comatose canon of oh-so-passé, circle-dancing tunes
from keyboard-generated duduks, oopman-doompa rhythms, wa-wa organs,
and drum machine-generated beats. [insert gagging noise here.]
Gimme a break. The folk that was dying a slow death is new again.
This is raw, new, and true. There is even a self-titled album, his
fourth, that's all English. Supporting his albums are cutting-edge
music videos, like one directed by Roger Kupelian. There are also two
documentaries telling the story of Gor in the Lav Eli days, and the
story of Gor making it on his own in the U.S., making it by making
fans fall for his music one song at a time.
Power up your iPod. Listen to the accordion, the base, acoustic
guitar. You're in a new world. A new age. Can you hear the violin? Can
you hear the flute? Those words in Armenian about a young man waking
up and understanding are poetic. Those heart-breaking words in English
are about the young man waking up in the shipping container he calls
home. These are the lyrics of the modern Armenian experience,
modern-day hayots badmutiun coming to life, words and music about the
unique experience of being Armenian.
Yo! You, the listener. Yo! You are special once again, in your
cocoon of an MP3 player, in your car, on the subway. Can you hear the
banjo? Turn it up. It's all there, and it's all Armenian, 100 percent.
Old folk and new folk, written, composed, and performed by a talented
musician from Vanadzor, whose chance meeting with a Bostonian created
the quantum leap in music.
“A friend of a friend, Raffi Meneshian from Boston, came to Armenia
for a few weeks,” says Gor. “We had a party, and I played the guitar.
Raffi listened and told me that he wanted to release my first solo
album - just acoustic guitar and vocals.”
The accidental meeting in 2001 led to the release of Yeraz by the
Boston-based Pomegranate Music label. That's how the legend began, and
it's caught on. What was recorded in bits and bytes was trail-blazing
Armenian music, fueled by the restless boredom and anxiety of a
culture sick of its parents' and grandparents' music.
In hotrods in New Jersey, on the freeways in So Cal, and on the 1
and 9 lines on the Upper West Side are random men and women listening
to revolutionary music, once underground, now energized by the rabid
getaway from years of take-me-seriously classical, estradayeen,
bee-bopping, Turkic rabiz, and whatever renovations of staid genres.
“The third album, 'Episodes,' is about episodes from peoples'
lives,” says Gor. “There are a few acoustic songs, just guitar and
vocals like my first album. There are also experimental songs with a
lot of different musicians like in my second album.”
Gor's second album, Godfather Tom, showed off the musician's uncanny
ability to take musical risks, mixing new instruments with his ancient
culture, using the cadence of the Armenian language with the backdrop
of Hillbilly, Rock, and Country all in one.
“If listeners like it, great,” says Gor about his music. “If they
don't, it's just a matter of taste. We're fine with that too. But I
think they're going to like it, because the new generation is looking
for something new.”
Gor is serving up original lyrics with pride. Candid lyrics.
Personal thoughts. “I don't want to remember what I did the night
before,” he sings, “but it's evident who I am.”
Now comes the fifth album, a return to his roots with folk songs,
while forging ahead with original creations. The album will be
released on Saturday, April 7, at Gor's CD release concert at the
Barnsdell Gallery Theatre in Hollywood. If you live nearby, get your
ticket on itsmyseat.com.
“The album is a limited edition, performed with acoustic guitars and
featuring Djivan Gasparyan, Jr.,” says Gor. Joining him on stage at
the Barnsdell, in addition to Djivan, Jr., will be several talented
musicians like Ara Dabanjian from the band Element and, drum roll
please . . . Aaron Stayman. [Remember his name from earlier in the
article?]
“I met my banjo player, Aaron Stayman, in Armenia,” explains Gor.
“Aaron was serving in the Peace Corps in Armenia. I saw him in
Vanadzor and Ijevan. He is a great musician, so we got together, and
we recorded this album. Since then, we've recorded several of my
albums with him.”
Gor says Stayman is his biggest musical influence. Stayman is a
medical student at Tufts and will be coming out to Los Angeles to
perform at Gor's CD release party. “Without him, my music wouldn't be
the same,” says Gor.
It's the old world meeting the new, the banjo-playing, future
doctor, Peace Corps volunteer meshing with the language of Mashtots.
The bridge between East and West. A liaison world music publications
are calling “Post-Soviet Alternative Folk Rock.”
But Gor is beyond labels. He's fresh. He's new. He's fun to listen
to, and he has the ethereal IT. Underground. No more. Gor is out
there, and his music is selling at Armenian record stores, on Amazon
and CDRama.com. Armenian music - Welcome to the 21st century, baby,
and turn the alarm clock off already.
“I woke up, I saw, I understood everything,” he sings. It's cutting
edge. It's pioneering. And it's unusually hip. Fans say Gor represents
a new generation of Armenians who are redefining what the culture
thinks of as Armenian culture.
“We started to sell my album 'Yeraz' not only in the Armenian
market,” says Gor, “but also on the Internet, Amazon, and CD Baby and
CD Rama, and we've had a good response from listeners. Some say they
don't understand any words, but they love it.”
Yeraz, his first solo CD released in 2002, fused the unique sounds
and lyrics of ancient Armenian folk music with modern rock and
sometimes, experimental sounds. The innovative and original
combination quickly garnered global attention, winning Gor acclaim
from all over the world, as well as accolades such as “best
alternative rock singer” and “best world music album.”
Thousands are now fans, chanting his name at small and large concert
venues in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, London, D.C., at UCLA, San
Francisco State University, Brown University, and Harvard. He has
played more than a hundred concerts since leaving Armenia, and fans
are sure more are ahead.
“The Harvard concert stands out as one of the more memorable
concerts,” says Gor. “It was in a very cozy venue, and the audience,
mostly non-Armenians, wanted to know about Armenians and Middle
Eastern cultures. We had questions and answers, and it was more than a
concert. I was able to tell them about my songs, the homeland, and
life experiences.”
Next month, Gor returns to the homeland after a four-year break. He
will join his brother Tirayr Mkhitarian and Mher Manoukyan, the other
members of Lav Eli, and the guitar-playing trio will play at Yerevan's
Avangard Folk Club on April 27 and the State Puppet Theatre on May 5.
“I want to see how much has changed in the past few years,” says
Gor. “Aside from seeing my family once again, I want to see the whole
scene, political, musical, social. I want to see everything.” Count on
his muses to visit and another set of songs about the experience of an
earthquake survivor seeing the aftermath of the political and social
earthquakes taking place since the shocker that hit at 11:41 A.M. on
December 7, 1988.
Wait. There's more on his plate. As always. There is Gor's
appearance at the June 1 Children's Day Festival at the Cafesjian
Center for the Arts at the Cascade in the heart of Yerevan. More than
40 thousand children and their parents are expected to gather at the
Cascade for the annual festival and concert. Among the headliners will
be none other than the man being celebrated in this article.
If the choice was Gor or no Gor, chances are you'd choose the
former. Why? Because it's new. It's fresh. It's addicting. It's Gor.
And he's got banjos and Gomidas on one expressionist musical canvas.
So show the schoolmarms the birdie and start saying “Gor” as many
times as you want. He's now part of the new Armenian lexicon.
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