My research project began originally as a documentary. We named it “Aziza!” because, back in the day, that is a song that every musician knew how to play and every dancer knew how to dance to. Despite much interest, we could not raise the money necessary to do the quality job we wanted. We are focusing our efforts to tell the story another way (more on that later).

We created this sampler for our funding pitches. Enjoy!

I grabbed this clip off of YouTube. It was posted by Joe Kouyoumjian and captures legendary musicians playing at a legendary club in honor of one of the best and most loved musicians to ever come out of New England.

John Berberian is considered to be one of the finest oud players in the United States. This video is a duet with Berberian and another legnedary musician, Mal Barsamian, on clarinet.

Club Cairo was a dancer-run venue that ran weekly for several years at the Joy of Movement (now the Dance Complex) in Central Square, Cambridge, MA. Founded by Nesrine (Nancy Barber), it was a place where newer dancers could learn the intricacies of dancing to live music.

Olana (Judy Barsamian) was a popular dancer in the 70s and 80s. She is featured on the cover of Fred Elias’ first “Artistic Moods for Dance” LP.

Sugar Mary Vartanian was born in Ankara, Turkey. After meeting and marrying an American, she started performing in New York at the beginning of the 1930s at a club called the Egyptian Gardens, and she quickly became one of the most popular Armenian entertainers on the East Coast, particularly famous for singing while playing the wooden spoons. Although she is a New York performer, I just love her and wanted to include this performance.