It is good to reflect on the people that influenced, inspired, and enabled us to choose and progress in our careers, hobbies, or passions. When it comes to the music I love and play, I have had many people who influenced, inspired, and enabled me. I have to thank my mother and father, my maternal aunt Suzie, and my maternal grandmother. For purposes of this post, I would like to expound about the role my Dad played in all this.
Many of those who knew my Dad, Aram “Sonny” Gavoor, was because he was an awesome track coach. He dedicated a large portion of his life to coaching young people reach their full potential. As a coach, he was demanding, energetic, and enthusiastic. He pushed his athletes to do their best, to achieve, and, actually, to over-achieve. At his wake and funeral in June 2018, the church was full of people he had coached, and they all related stories of how he pushed and motivated them and how those lessons of hard work and perseverance have stayed with them all of their lives.
When it came to music, Coach Gavoor inspired and motivated me in a completely different manner. He was not demanding nor energetic in his motivation, but he was enthusiastic and basically influenced me by example. He loved the music. He listened to music all the time at home. He listened to Armenian, Greek, Arabic, and Turkish. He loved it all. On Saturday afternoons, we would listen to three radio hours back-to-back starting at 4 pm on WMZK. First, he listed to the Arab Hour. It was followed by the Armenian and then the Greek. He listened to records a lot as well. We had a small house. We had one record player and one radio. Because he listened to a lot music, I basically listened to a lot of this music. I got to really like what he really liked. And what he really liked is music in the intersection of Armenian, Greek, and Turkish.
As we listened, we would talk about the songs we liked. He would tell me stories of the musicians he grew listening to with his father. It is multi-generational love of this music.
In reading what I just wrote and applying a wee bit of logic, it would be easy to draw a conclusion that I love this music because of my environment; basically, for behavioral reasons. But the poet in me doesn’t abide by this and believes the love for this music is in my genetic code. My mathematician and statistician third of the brain is open to it being a mixture of both nature and nurture.
Dad had a decent record collection; nothing crazy or off the charts like folks I know have today. He would buy records when we would visit Watertown each summer. It was there he bought Portraits of the Middle Eastern by the Gomidas Band of Philadelphia and a dozen 45s of the inimitable Stelios Kazantzidis singing Greek-Turkish. The record labels were in Greek, so I never learned the name of the singer. In the 1990s, I realized how famous the singer was and how fortunate enough I was to be exposed in those formative years to such a talent. Thanks Dad. I have a CD version of those songs and listen to them still.
In Detroit, I believe he bought his albums in Greektown. He bought an album of a Greek clarinetist named Peter Kara. He loved that album and literally wore it out he played it so much. I liked it too and believed Peter Kara to famous and well known. In this case, no Greek musicians I have ever asked heard of this fellow. He was famous in our house, however. Thanks Dad.
There was another significant album my Dad bought in Greektown. It was called Music of the Harems on the Nina label. I was mesmerized by this album from the first listen. It was a compilation of songs from older 78s and 45s. There were four groups featured on this album of eleven selections. Six of the cuts featured the Şükrü Tunar Orchestra, two are from Melahat Mardin, two of the Şen Sisters, and one of the Haydar Tatilay Orchestra. I loved all the selections on this album almost from the first listen. The cuts I first liked best were two by the Şükrü Tunar Orchestra: Lorke lorke and Şükrü Tunar playing a Clarinet Taksim. It was the first taksim I ever liked. Indeed, I picked a good one. I came to learn that in my late teens that Şükrü Tunar is, arguably, the best Turkish clarinetist ever and this was his signature taksim. Thanks Dad.
From this album, I learned Burçak Tarlasi (Şen Sisters) and another song by Melahat Mardin, Gülerken Ben Ağlıyordum. I learned to play this last song by memory long after I moved out of my parents’ house and left the album behind. I just knew the melody simply from having listened to it so much. Thanks Dad. It is one of my favorite tunes that very few musicians I know play.
We did a performance in which the clarinetist a particular zeybeg. When he started playing it, it was Ege Zeybeg from this album. I had never played it but I had listened to the Şükrü Tunar rendition so many times that I was able to play along with him. Thanks Dad.
My Dad motivated and educated me without my ever knowing. He just pursued a passion of his and I enjoyed it along with him. He motivated me by his example.
Here is the Nina Album on YouTube. Enjoy.
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