Home » Jazz Musicians » Aram Bajakian

Aram Bajakian

The music of guitarist, composer and educator Aram Bajakian has been called “a masterpiece” (fRoots, July 2017), “shape-shifting” (FreeJazzCollective, January 2017), and “astonishing” (Georgia Straight, March 2017).

As an instrumentalist, Bajakian had the privilege of performing alongside Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed during his last two tours in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, Bajakian toured in Diana Krall’s band, performing over 100 concerts with the multiple-Grammy-award-winning singer, along with violinist Stuart Duncan (Yo-Yo Ma’s Goat Rodeo, Robert Plant) and drummers Karriem Riggins (Kanye West, Common, J-Dilla) and Jay Bellerose (Elton John, Rhiannon Giddens). Through these tours and others, Bajakian has had the opportunity to play in many of the world’s greatest venues, including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Acropolis, L’Olympia, as well as the Montreaux, Newport, Northsea, Monterey and Antibes jazz festivals, among others.

Bajakian’s collaboration with his wife, vocalist, actress and ethnomusicologist, Julia Ulehla, entitled Dálava, reimagines folk songs collected over 100 years ago from a single village in Moravia by her great-grandfather. Their performances and two albums have received universal critical acclaim. Dálava’s latest album, The Book of Transfigurations (Songlines, 2017) was listed by the Georgia Straight as one of “50 Albums That Shaped Vancouver” in their May 2017 edition celebrating the magazine’s 50th year in print. Bastiaan Springer, in his August 2017 fRoots review said, “Every now and then an album appears that is so overwhelming and so intense that it is hard to put into any category. Such is the case with The Book Of Transfigurations, the second release by Dálava...Saying that The Book Of Transfigurations is a masterpiece is not an exaggeration.”

Bajakian’s 2014 solo guitar album, Music Inspired by the Color of Pomegranates, an alternate soundtrack to Parajanov’s iconic film, received 4.5 stars from All About Jazz and was featured in the documentary Shepherds in the Cave, which tells the story of the restoration of frescoes in ancient Italian caves. there were flowers also in hell (2014, Sanasar Records), was called "One of the best instrumental rock records of recent years," by New York Music Daily. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said of the album, "Every track singular, every track strong. A MINUS." Released by John Zorn’s Tzadik Label, Aram Bajakian’s Kef, which explores Armenian dance music of the same name, was listed as one of the Best World Music Albums of 2011 by PopMatters.

Bajakian has worked with numerous artists over the years and has been featured on several of composer and saxophonist John Zorn’s projects. Bajakian performs in bassist Shanir Blumenkranz’ (Yo-Yo Ma, Cyro Baptista) band Abraxas, which has recorded two albums of John Zorn’s music: Book of Angels Volume 19, and Psychomagia. Bill Milkowski called their first album a “Twin 6 String assault,” in Downbeat Magazine. A third album of material, entitled Book Beriah: Gevurah, was released in 2018 as part of an 11 CD box set which also featured albums by Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Julian Lage and Secret Chiefs 3.

Read more

Tags

6
Album Review

Handmade Blade: Aram Bajakian's Dolphy Formations

Read "Aram Bajakian's Dolphy Formations" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Guitarist Aram Bajakian has always played music that made things happen, whether it was with his contributions to Lou Reed's band, or Diana Krall's, or on his work on Tzadik Records, or his own self produced CD, 2016's superb Music Inspired By The Color of Pomegranate, an unofficial alternative soundtrack to the Russian movie of the same name. Dolphy Formations is another story. Bajakian is up front about “[wanting] to create a piece where nothing happens." He ties ...

Album Review

Aram Bajakian: Music Inspired by the Color of Pomegranates

Read "Music Inspired by the Color of Pomegranates" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Aram Bajakian è un chitarrista assai eclettico, già accompagnatore di Lou Reed nei suoi ultimi tour, poi con Diana Krall, ma allo stesso tempo membro del gruppo Abraxas, due album con la Tzadik di John Zorn, e collabora con Marc Ribot e Yusef Lateef, Mat Maneri e Frank London, Nels Cline e lo stesso Zorn. Bajakian mette poi a frutto questa messe di esperienze nei suoi lavori in solo, di cui quello in esame ha una identità particolarmente curiosa.

10
Album Review

Aram Bajakian: Music Inspired By the Color Of Pomegranates

Read "Music Inspired By the Color Of Pomegranates" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Guitarist Aram Bajakian found a fitting concept to tie together his creative ideas and the extended techniques he's been exploring: An obscure Russian movie about the 18th century Armenian poet, Sayat Nova. The resulting album, Music Inspired by The Color of Pomegranates, is pensive, layered, brilliantly virtuosic music, sometimes minimalist, sometimes orchestral, all of it created by the artist alone in the studio with his 1937 Gibson archtop guitar. A versatile musician who spent two years walking on ...

353
Extended Analysis

Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the Armenian Diaspora

Read "Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the Armenian Diaspora" reviewed by Chris May


Aram BajakianAram Bajakian's KefTzadik2011 Itself born out of traditional music, jazz has over the last hundred years often enriched itself with folk infusions. In the 1930s, the Gypsy jazz of guitarist Django Reinhardt enlivened the European scene. Contemporaneously, the country swing of bands such as Bob Willis & The Texas Playboys was doing the same thing in the southwestern US. Skip forward a few decades, and guitarist Bill Frisell was creating ...

Read more articles
117

Recording

Aram Bajakian - Aram Bajakian's Kef (2011)

Aram Bajakian - Aram Bajakian's Kef (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Listening to the guitarist Aram Bajakian is lot like listening to Marc Ribot, and Aram follows much of Ribot's wildly divergent style that incorporates the vintage forms of swing, punk and rock and roll into a fresh and daring style. So it's fair to state that if you like Ribot, you're gonna like Bajakian, too. That's enough for me to like Bajakian, too, but Bajakian goes beyond being “just another" Ribot. He devoted a lot of study toward music halfway ...

132

Recording

Aram Bajakian's Kef (Tzadik, 2011) ****a1/2

Aram Bajakian's Kef (Tzadik, 2011) ****a1/2

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Paul Acquaro Picked by John Zorn for his new Spotlight series on Tzadic records, you know something interesting must be is going on with Aram Bajakian's Kef trio. Listening to the Brooklyn based guitarists debut recording, all suspicions are confirmed. The songs on this album seductively, destructively and quite entertainingly blend passion, reverence and sometimes a little self-immolation. Or in the words of Zorn himself, “The music here rocks hard with exciting rhythms, searing guitar work and beautiful world ...

156

Recording

Aram Bajakian's Kef (Tzadik, 2011)

Aram Bajakian's Kef (Tzadik, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

By listening to this album, you can tell why rock 'n' roll legend Lou Reed would ask guitarist Aram Bajakian to play guitar on his summer tour. Bajakian can rip feedback laden Velvet Underground/Robert Quine style riffs at will, but can also play gentler music in acoustic and electric format. This album (which will be released on July 26) features Bajakian in the company of Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on acoustic bass, electric bass, oud and gimbri and Tom Swafford on ...

128

Event

Sean Noonan's Brewed by Noon: November 9th & 18th with Thierno Camara, Aram Bajakian, Abdoulaye Diabate, Mat Maneri

Sean Noonan's Brewed by Noon: November 9th & 18th with Thierno Camara, Aram Bajakian, Abdoulaye Diabate, Mat Maneri

Source: All About Jazz

Brewed By Noon pre-recording session sneak album preview performances When:Tea Lounge, Friday, November 9, 9pm Soundfix Records, Sunday, November 18, 7pm With: Thierno Camara -bass/vocals, Aram Bajakian -guitar, Abdoulaye Diabate -vocals, Mat Maneri - viola, Sean Noonan - drums SEAN NOONAN'S BREWED BY NOON DELIVERS A RICH BLEND OF TRADITIONS ON STORIES TO TELL Drummer/composer Sean Noonan describes Brewed by Noon as “tribal rhythms by an Irish griot....My goal is to adapt folklore in a modern jazz context, ...

"A virtuosic jack of all trades."

The Village Voice

"Bajakian playfully fragments melody, evoking surf rock and downtown noise."

The Wall Street Journal

With Lou Reed: “The Velvet Underground’s “White Light, White Heat” beats everything, with Bajakian whipping out a fast solo with infectious pleasure, as its careening garage-rock blasts off; a thrilling end to an uncompromising night.”

INDEPENDENT UK, REVIEW OF 8/12/12 LOU REED PERFORMANCE AT ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL. With Diana Krall: "The best part of the show was Mr. Bajakian's Wes Montgomery-style solo on "How Deep is the Ocean"

Read more

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Aram Bajakian's...

Self Produced
2016

buy

Boxing Dreams

Songlines Recordings
2009

buy

Live From New York...

Innova Recordings
2008

buy

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.