Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

SARKISIAN OFFERS NON-AGGRESSION PACT WITH BAKU

Hurriyet
March 22 2010
Turkey

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian has appealed to Azerbaijan to
sign a non-aggression pact which he hopes would prepare the ground
for continued talks over the future of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
region.

In an interview with Euronews, Sarkisian said the non-use of force
is an underlying principle of international law and holds the key to
a lasting settlement of the long-running territorial dispute.

In an earlier conciliatory move towards Baku, the Armenian leader said
he was ready to accept the modified Madrid Principles, a framework
for solving the Karabakh conflict backed by the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE.

Azerbaijan’s President Ä°lham Aliyev responded by saying the
negotiations were already in their final stage but insisted on the
return of all Karabakh territories and the withdrawal of all Armenian
forces stationed in the area.

Self-determination

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been occupied by
Armenian forces since the end of a six-year conflict that left roughly
30,000 dead and displaced 1 million before a truce was signed in 1994.

The territory’s unilaterally-declared independence has not been
recognized by the international community.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been negotiating on
the issue under the OSCE, but little progress has been made in the
peace talks.

Sarkisian also reiterated his country’s long-standing argument that
Nagorno-Karabakh’s people should have the right to self-determination,
saying that Karabakh was artificially attached to Azerbaijan during
Soviet times and that Armenia could not cede the territory so easily.

Alexei Malashenko, head of the Voice of Russia’s English service
and an expert from the Carnegie Center said he does not believe the
conflict will be settled any time soon.

"An economically successful Azerbaijan sees itself as a South Caucasus
superpower, which can use its enormous material, human and military
potential to achieve its goals – hence its consistent refusal to give
any ground on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," he said.

He also said, however, that a new war was unlikely because none of
Russia, Europe or Turkey would permit such a conflict to occur.

The International Herald Tribune, France
March 18, 2010 Thursday

Upstarts get a big stage;
The luxury retailer Westime searches for the rising stars of high-end
watchmaking

by Victoria Gomelsky
LOS ANGELES

ABSTRACT
John Simonian has plucked independent watchmakers with big talent and
small marketing budgets from obscurity and given them a worthy stage
at his two retail boutiques.

FULL TEXT
John Simonian, the founder and chief executive of Westime, a watch
retailer based in Beverly Hills, California, describes success in the
watch business by using a simile that comes naturally to people in
this city.

”It’s like Hollywood,” Mr. Simonian said. ”You have 100,000 actors
and 100 superstars, and I think the odds are the same in
watchmaking.”

It would seem appropriate to compare Mr. Simonian to a director or producer.

Over the past decade, he has plucked independent watchmakers with big
talent and small marketing budgets from obscurity and given them a
worthy stage at his two retail boutiques, and along the way he has
anointed them the rising stars of haute horlogerie.

”John’s a true mover and shaker in this industry,” said Thomas Mao,
a management consultant in Los Angeles and the founder of
ThePuristS.com, a Web site for watch aficionados. ”He’s up there with
Chronopassion in Paris, Hour Glass in Singapore and Cellini in New
York,” Mr. Mao said.

Among those retail temples in the watchmaking community, only Hour
Glass and Westime share the distinction of being equally influential
as distributors.

In addition to Westime, Mr. Simonian owns Richard Mille U.S.A. and
distributes seven niche brands across the Americas through a parent
company, Ildico. His brands include Greubel Forsey, Urwerk, HD3, Alain
Silberstein, MCT, Vincent Bérard and Roland Iten Mechanical Luxury.

For each brand, Mr. Simonian uses ”microdistribution” to preserve a
cult following among collectors. He perfected the sales tactic through
his relationship with Richard Mille, the enfant terrible of high
watchmaking, whose forward thinking in the business made a big
impression on Mr. Simonian around the turn of the millennium.

”Until Richard Mille, there was the bean counter looking over the
creative guy as he made a watch to fit the market,” Mr. Simonian
said. ”Richard Mille came along and said, ‘I’m going to make the
finest mechanical watch, and if it’s superexpensive, it’s
superexpensive.’ So he comes to the market with a tourbillon that’s
$140,000.”

That was shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and not everyone in the
business shared Mr. Simonian’s enthusiasm for the upstart brand. But
that did not matter. He had already fallen in love with it.

The appreciation was mutual. Six months after Richard Mille named
Westime his first North American retailer, in November 2001, he gave
Mr. Simonian the distribution business for the United States and
Canada. That was followed in 2005 by the rights to the rest of the
Western Hemisphere.

Mr. Simonian, who was born in Beirut in 1956 to parents who belonged
to the Armenian diaspora, made his first trip to Switzerland at the
age of 12 with his father, a Swiss watch importer. Although he had a
great uncle who specialized in watchmaking, he gravitated to the
business side of the industry.

In 1986, he and his Swiss wife, Barbara Simonian, moved with their two
children to Los Angeles, where he briefly owned the largest Swatch
store in the United States.

In 1987, Mr. Simonian opened Westime in the Westside Pavilion, an
upscale mall in West Los Angeles.

”Americans were superignorant about watches at the time,” he said.
”They knew Rolex and Timex and nothing in between.”

As the economy revved up, Westime’s success in cultivating collectors
also picked up.

”One of the reasons I went with all these independent brands is
because after selling watches to all my good customers, I had nothing
else to sell them,” he said.

”They had their Breguet, their Vacheron, their Audemars Piguet and
Richard Mille. So I brought them something new,” he added.

Today, between the West Los Angeles location and a salon on Rodeo
Drive that opened in 2003, Westime stocks about 50 brands, from an
inexpensive surfer’s watch called Nixon to far-out creations from Guy
Ellia and MB&F.

Mr. Simonian’s son, Greg Simonian, 24, the chief operating officer of
Westime, runs the retail operation, and he follows his father’s
commitment to exotic but little-known brands. The elder Mr. Simonian
focuses on distribution and the growing Latin American market, where a
new group of collectors awaits.

RUSSIAN PATRIARCH HONORS ARMENIA GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Asbarez
Mar 18th, 2010

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill
has honored the victims of the Armenian Genocide. During a visit to
Yerevan, Kirill laid wreaths at Yerevan’s Armenian Genocide Monument,
dedicated to the 1.5 million Armenians annihilated by the Ottoman
Turkish government under the guise of World War I.

Russia is among the countries that recognize the genocide, which
Turkey vehemently denies and lobbies to cover up.

Earlier, Kirill pledged to strengthen relations between the Russian
and Armenian churches at the beginning of his three-day official visit.

Kirill and Catholicos Karekin II, the supreme leader of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, were greeted by hundreds of believers and led a joint
prayer service at the Armenian church’s main cathedral in Echmiadzin,
near Yerevan, shortly after Kirill’s arrival in the Armenian capital
on March 16.

"Every visitor to Armenia receives unforgettable impressions, looking
at its main symbol, the holy Mount Ararat," Kirill said in a speech.

He added that Russian-Armenian relations have been "warm and friendly"
ever since modern-day Armenia was incorporated into the Russian
Empire in 1828 as a result of a Russo-Persian war. He underlined the
significance of that victory later in the day by visiting a memorial
to Russian soldiers killed in that war.

Karekin, for his part, spoke of the Armenian people’s "total love of
and warm feelings of gratitude toward the Russian [Orthodox] Church,
the great Russian people, and the Russian state."

A spokesman for Karekin, Vahram Melikian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service that the visit will "further strengthen" ties between the
two churches, which both enjoy strong government support.

Russian analysts say that unlike his predecessor, Aleksy II, who
died in 2008, Kirill is active in the political arena and keen to
reach out to other churches. Aleksei Makarkin, director of the
Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies, likened him to
experienced politicians who can "very quickly achieve their goals."

Makarkin told RFE/RL that the 63-year-old patriarch has a cordial
rapport with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin.

"Patriarch Kirill is undoubtedly an influential political figure in
Russia, someone whose views the Kremlin takes into account," he said.

The Armenian Apostolic Church is the oldest state church in the world.

ARMENIA CONDEMNS TURKISH THREAT TO EXPEL NATIONALS

Agence France Presse
March 17, 2010 Wednesday 4:38 PM GMT

Armenia on Wednesday condemned a threat by Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expel thousands of illegal Armenian workers,
saying it revived memories of World War I-era massacres.

"These kinds of political statements do not help to improve relations
between our two states…. When the Turkish prime minister allows
himself to make such statements it immediately for us brings up
memories of the events of 1915," Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sarkisian told parliament.

Erdogan made the threat after US and Swedish lawmakers recently voted
to brand World War I-era killings of Armenians under Ottoman Turks as
"genocide," a label that Ankara fiercely rejects.

In an interview with the BBC Turkish service, Erdogan said the votes
were undermining reconciliation efforts with Armenia and said Ankara
was "not obliged" to tolerate about 100,000 Armenians working illegally
in Turkey.

Following Swiss-brokered talks to end decades of enmity, Turkey and
Armenia signed an accord in October to establish diplomatic ties and
open their border.

The process has hit snags however, with both countries accusing each
other of lacking commitment to the deal.

The climate was further poisoned this month when the US House Foreign
Affairs Committee approved a non-binding resolution branding the
massacres of Armenians a genocide, and the Swedish parliament followed
suit last week.

Turkey recalled its ambassadors from both countries, warning that
bilateral ties and reconciliation efforts with Armenia would suffer.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in a systematic
extermination campaign during World War I as the Ottoman Empire
fell apart.

Turkey counters that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at
least as many Turks were killed in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian forces.

BULGARIAN PARTY SUBMITS DECLARATION FOR PARLIAMENT TO CONDEMN GENOCIDE

Asbarez
Mar 18th, 2010

SOPHIA (novinite.com)-Bulgaria’s conservative Order, Law, and Justice
(RZS) party on Thursday submitted to Parliament an official declaration
asking that Bulgaria condemns the Armenian Genocide committed by
Turkey.

The declaration is in connection with the Thursday visit of Turkish
Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to Bulgaria and statements of
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the country is
prepared to deport 100,000 Armenians from Turkey.

RZS is also requesting an official answer from Prime Minister, Boyko
Borisov, about the policy of his cabinet regarding the Armenian
Genocide during World War I.

The party leader, Yane Yanev, says they aim at reaching a consensus
about Bulgaria’s assessment of the tragic events and giving a clear
statement in defense of historical truth as the US and Sweden have
done.

The US Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee and the Swedish
Parliament recently approved resolutions recognizing the Genocide,
stirring outrage in Turkey.

ARMENIA TO SHOWCASE ITS FOODS AT ABU DHABI FAIR

ARKA
March 17, 2010

YEREVAN, March 17, /ARKA/. Armenia plans to take part in an
international food fair in Abu Dhabi, slated for April, Robert
Harutyunian, executive director of the Armenian Development Agency
(ADA), told a news conference on March 16 at Novosti international
press center.

He said Armenian companies will showcase their produces in a separate
pavilion. According to him, some 20 local companies have already
expressed their intention to take their foods as well as fresh
vegetables and fruits to Abu Dhabi.

He said the biggest investment companies will be invited to take part
in a businessmen forum of businessmen from Armenia and the United
Arab Emirates, scheduled for May.

GENOCIDE RESOLUTION COULD GO FORWARD DESPITE OPPOSITION FROM OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2010 20:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A US congressional resolution that would recognize
killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as Genocide could go forward
despite opposition from the Obama administration.

Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told reporters there is
no deal with Democratic congressional leaders to block the resolution.

That contradicts earlier claims by the State Department.

Turkey strongly opposes the resolution. It withdrew its ambassador
to Washington earlier this month after a congressional committee
approved the measure.

Gordon acknowledged the congressional committee vote had set back
relations at a time when the United States is seeking help from
Turkey to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But he said the United
States has not seen a deterioration in cooperation with Turkey on a
wide range of foreign policy matters.

The Obama administration has urged lawmakers to keep the measure from
a vote in the full U.S. House. It is not clear whether supporters of
the resolution have enough support to bring it to the House floor.

Gordon said the resolution is an obstacle for reconciliation talks
between Turkey and Armenia. The two countries reached a deal last
year to normalize relations and open their border, but it has not
yet been ratified by their governments. But Gordon denied the process
had stalled.

"I really think that those two countries’ leaderships are committed to
doing this," he told reporters. He said that the Obama administration
thinks the historical issues are best addressed by the two countries
as part of reconciliation talks. Historians estimate that up to
1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, an event widely
viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey,
however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has
been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and
unrest. In a speech, Gordon urged Turkey to step up pressure on Iran,
a neighbor and important trading partner. He criticized Turkey for
not voting on a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency
demanding that Iran suspend construction of a once-secret nuclear
facility. "With respect to Iran, while the international community has
sought to present a single, coordinated message to Iran’s government,
Turkey has at times sounded a different note," Gordon said, according
to prepared text of the speech, Associated Press reported.

FRANCE ‘MEETS COMMITMENTS’ TO AZERBAIJAN AS KARABAKH MEDIATOR

news.az
March 17 2010
Azerbaijan

Natalie Goulet Senator Natalie Goulet has pledged France’s commitment
as an OSCE mediator on Karabakh.

Her comments came in the wake of a row about the mistranslation
of remarks by French mediator Bernard Fassier at a NATO seminar in
Yerevan. Fassier described as a ‘complete distortion’ reports that he
said Azerbaijan would lose a war with Armenia because of the bravery
of Armenian soldiers.

Natalie Goulet spoke to journalists today when she visited former
President Heydar Aliyev’s memorial in the Avenue of Honour and
Martyrs’ Avenue.

Goulet said that France met its commitment to Azerbaijan in the OSCE
Minsk Group.

‘France is actively working with the Minsk Group. We hope that the
necessary result on solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will
be achieved soon.’

Goulet highly appreciated relations between the Azerbaijani and French
parliaments, describing the relationship as deep and strong.

Asked about the recognition of the ‘Armenian genocide’ by the French
Senate, Goulet said: ‘I was not elected at that time. I have no
responsibility for that. I think history should be written only
by historians.’

Addressing the presidential Strategic Studies Centre, Goulet encouraged
Azerbaijan to develop regional cooperation and reinforce its position
as a regional leader.

‘I think that the first step that would reinforce Azerbaijan’s
stability and its position would be to boost regional cooperation and
reinforce its leading positions in the Caspian region,’ Goulet said.

She said that Azerbaijan faced many threats, including the Karabakh
conflict and Armenia’s failure to fulfil UN resolutions on withdrawal
from the territory.

‘We can also see the militarization of the Caspian region today and
this is frightening,’ she said.

17 March 2010 [18:33] – Today.Az
Day.Az interview with Azerbaijani political analyst Rasim Agayev.

What are your comments on Turkish PM Erdogan’s interview with BBC in
which he warned of possible expulsion of 100,000 illegal Armenian
migrants from the country if Yerevan "does not get rid of the mortgage
of the Armenian diaspora?"

Armenia has become involved in a geopolitics game thinking like a
young girl fond of her own fantasies believing that she is most
beautiful and desirable for all and forgetting sometimes to look in
the mirror to see a huge difference between her fantasies and real
picture.

Armenia’s reluctance to look in the mirror reached its peak after the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Congress adopted a
resolution on the mythical "Armenian genocide". This is despite the
fact that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during Guatemala
trip stated that the U.S. Congress will not consider a resolution on
the so-called "Armenian genocide".

So, still being in some kind of intoxication over the above
resolution, Armenia does not want to give up fantasies, while those
who contribute to these fantasies using this weak side for their own
purposes and while the future, especially economic and social survival
of ordinary people of this country is dependant on its geopolitical
environment.

Erdogan’s statement was the first serious warning was for
Armenians. The fate of not only representatives of the Armenian
nation, but also that of illegal Armenian migrants in Turkey depends
on whether Armenia will draw appropriate conclusions from this
statement. Turkey tired of immoral actions of the world Armenians and
the Republic of Armenia, in a serious mood.

In other words, you mean that Turkey may also close its air border
with Armenia?

This is quite possible scenario of events and outcome of Armenia’s
actions towards Turkey. Inspired by fantasies, Armenia has forgotten
that Turkey is a regional superpower which has enough leverage on
it. Closure of the Turkish-Armenian air border, as fraction of steps
that Turkey can take with regard to Armenia.

What will be world community’s reaction to Turkey’s steps then?

It will only voice regret over Turkey’s actions at most or it would be
simply inappropriate to bring any claim to Turkey. Turkey is free to
act based on its own national interests, it is quite powerful and
influential not to respond to the biased view of some countries. And
finally, it has every right to fight phenomenon of illegal migration.

In your opinion, what impact return of 100,000 Armenian migrants to
home may have on situation in Armenia?

I am sure there is large number of criminals among Armenians illegally
residing in Turkey. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the
sharp decline in crime rate in Azerbaijan after 1990s due to fact that
Armenian criminals left the country in large number because they
constituted overwhelming percentage of criminals.

It is possible that certain percentage of Armenian criminal elements
is now in Turkey. I am confident that their move to Armenia, which
faces terrible social and economic situation, could lead to the most
appalling consequences for the country. As a whole, this country, not
being able to properly feed those already living on its territory,
will experience enormous problems in case huge number of people with
lost earnings comes returns home.

INTERVIEW: GEORGE AVAKIAN (PART 1)
by Marc Myers Discuss

All About Jazz
1698
March 16 2010

This syndicated blog entry appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.

All rights reserved.

Today is George Avakian’s birthday. For more than 70 years, George
has shaped how jazz was recorded and regarded. As a pop and jazz
LP producer starting in the mid-1940s, George was a visionary at a
time when several recording technologies and formats were emerging
and competing. In the first decade of the LP era, his innovative
album concepts for Columbia transformed jazz from a fringe genre to
nationally acclaimed performance art. In this regard, George served
as both an eyewitness to modern jazz history and a catalyst, raising
jazz’s profile while serving as architect of its sophisticated image.

[Photo of George Avakian by Ian Clifford]

George’s "firsts" speak volumes. He produced the first jazz album
in 1940 (for Decca). He wrote the first jazz album liner notes. He
produced the first 10-inch LP at Columbia in 1948 (The Voice of Frank
Sinatra). He produced the first 12-inch jazz LP in 1950 (Benny Goodman
at Carnegie Hall, 1938), which also happened to be the first double-LP
set. He signed Miles Davis in 1955 and helped make the trumpeter jazz’s
first modern superstar. He revived the careers of Louis Armstrong and
Duke Ellington. He also founded Warner Brothers Records–and we’re
only up to 1958.

In Part 1 of my five-part series with George, 91, the father of the
jazz LP talks about interviewing Benny Goodman for his high school
newspaper, writing to Decca Records in 1938 and pitching a series
of jazz albums, producing one of them, and having to learn about the
music through French jazz books:

JazzWax: When did you first fall in love with jazz?

George Avakian: In 1935, at age 16. I was supposed to be sleeping
but instead I was up sneaking a listen to NBC on the radio. I first
heard broadcasts from New York’s Savoy Ballroom. But the music
didn’t resemble Yes We Have No Bananas and other novelty stuff of
the day. It was the music of Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and
Louis Armstrong.

JW: Why did the music appeal to you?

GA: It reminded me of the lively dance music, ballads and other folk
music that my parents had brought to America from Armenia and played
in the house. I think that’s why many European immigrant families
identified with jazz. There was that common ethnic bond.

JW: Did your obsession with late-night radio grow?

GA: Yes. As I became more deeply interested in the musicians with the
strange-sounding names, I began to listen regularly on Saturdays to
NBC’s Let’s Dance program, which came on at 10:30 p.m. in New York
and lasted for hours. NBC used to divide the broadcast among three
different types of music, so there would be something for everyone.

There was sweet band music by Kel Murray, Latin by Xavier Cugat and
dance band music by Benny Goodman.

JW: By the summer of 1935, Goodman’s status had changed, didn’t it?

GA: Oh, yes. When Goodman went out on the road to California with
his band that year, his music’s popularity died as he traveled west.

People just weren’t interested. But when the band reached the Palomar
Ballroom in Los Angeles in August 1935, the roof came off there was so
much excitement. NBC’s Let’s Dance broadcasts had built an audience
for him, Benny was so popular out there that he didn’t return to New
York for a year.

JW: How did you feel about Goodman?

GA: I was more than a fan. When I heard that Goodman was scheduled
to return to New York in September 1936, I saw an opportunity. I was
editor of my high school newspaper at the Horace Mann School for Boys.

I decided I was going to interview Mr. Goodman. His record of King
Porter Stomp had been No. 1 on "Your Hit Parade" for weeks. Imagine,
a composition originally written in 1903 by Jelly Roll Morton ends
up being the biggest selling record in the country. The question was
how to reach someone like Benny Goodman.

JW: What did you do?

GA: I told a classmate what I wanted to do. He said that his mother
was on the Democratic Committee in New York and that its president was
owner of the Hotel Pennsylvania, where Benny was due to play for an
extended period. My friend said that his mom might be able to arrange
for me to interview him.

JW: What happened?

GA: I caught a break. The hotel’s owner agreed to put us together. In
November, I interviewed Mr. Goodman in the hotel’s Manhattan Room.

Benny enjoyed the experience so much that he told his band manager,
"Take good care of George and his friend. They’re nice kids. Be sure
they have a good table." After the show, we were invited to hear the
band rehearse pop tunes of the day for the following week’s Camel
Caravan radio program.

JW: How was it?

GA: A thrill. And the musicians were so nice to us–probably because
we responded immediately to requests for sandwiches [laughs].

JW: After you graduated from high school, you attended Yale. What
did you study?

GA: English literature, which I had discovered years earlier by picking
up a Sherlock Holmes story. When I asked the school librarian for
more stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, she brought me a big thick
book. I ate it up in about 10 days. That’s when I decided I wanted
to be an English teacher or a journalist.

JW: In 1938, while at Yale, you wrote to Decca Records. Why?

GA: Yes, I did. And they responded a year later. I had been campaigning
for jazz to be recorded and released like classical albums of the
day. Back then, classical albums featured multiple 78-rpms that
slid into sleeves. They also came with a booklet that featured
beautiful photos and text describing the music and why the composer
and performers were important.

JW: What did you write in your letter to Decca?

GA: I proposed that they do a series of jazz albums and start with
tributes to the styles of the three cities that made jazz famous–New
Orleans, Kansas City and Chicago.

JW: What was Decca’s response?

GA: Decca said in essence, "We don’t know quite what jazz in those
cities is about but you seem to know so why don’t you go ahead and
produce them."

JW: Be careful what you wish for, right?

GA: I was excited. I was pretty close with the musicians from Chicago
who had moved to New York during the Depression, like Eddie Condon,
Pee Wee Russell, Bud Freeman [pictured] and Jimmy McPartland. I made
that album first. But when time came to get paid, I found out that
Decca was going to pay me only $75, which was less than it had cost
me to go to Chicago and do one recording session with Jimmy McPartland.

JW: What happened?

GA: I decided I was in over my head. I told them to take the material I
had outlined for the other two sets and to give them to the two people
I thought would do the best job–Steve Smith for the New Orleans
set and Dave Dexter for Kansas City. Smith was a collector who had
started the United Hot Clubs of America. Dave had been the Kansas
City Star’s crime reporter and knew all about the jazz scene there.

JW: What was your album called?

GA: Chicago Jazz, and it was the first jazz album ever recorded. It
had six 10-inch 78-rpm discs, which meant a total of 12 songs. I wrote
a 12-page booklet, which became the first jazz album liner notes. I
produced those records between my sophomore and junior years at Yale
in 1939 and 1940.

JW: Had you written to other record labels?

GA: Yes. And oddly enough, just after my Decca set came out,
Columbia Records answered some of the letters I had written them
about reissues. I had written the company after discovering Okeh
Records over the Thanksgiving weekend in 1936.

JW: What happened?

GA: That fall, Julian Koenig, a friend of mine, had told his older
brother, Lester, a senior at Dartmouth, that I was interested in swing
music. Lester read the interview I had just done with Benny Goodman
and said to Julian, "Ask George what he thinks of Louis Armstrong."

JW: What did you say?

GA: I gave him an honest answer since I had been buying Louis’ Decca
records: "Oh, he sings funny but he sure plays a lot of trumpet"
[laughs]. Lester’s response was, "Gee, George has never heard the
Okehs. I’m going to knock his ears off Thanksgiving weekend."

JW: Did he?

GA: When he came home to New York for Thanksgiving, Lester invited
me over and, wow, imagine out of the blue hearing West End Blues and
all those other great classics of Armstrong’s. I said, "How can I
get them?" Lester said, "You can’t. They’re out of print." I said,
"Who owns them?" He said, "Brunswick Records bought them up long ago
and they’re sitting on them."

JW: What did he suggest?

GA: Lester urged me to write to Brunswick. He said, "They’re in the
phone book. But if you want to find out about the history of this
music, you can’t do it in the U.S. because there are no books that
will help you." Jazz scholarship and jazz writing didn’t exist the
way it does today.

JW: What was his suggestion?

GA: Lester said, "If you studied French at Horace Mann, then you must
know enough to do this: Send an $8 money order to La Volta Music at
75 Boulevard Raspail in Paris and request two books.

JW: What were they?

GA: Charles Delaunay’s Hot Discography and Hugues Panassie’s Le Jazz
Hot, a definitive guide to jazz musicians that explained why they
were great. There was a summary at the end of each chapter telling
you which records to buy. Of course, the records recommended were
the European releases, but the book gave me a head start.

JW: Was Lester…

GA: That Lester Koenig? Yes. Lester went on to found Contemporary
Records in California in 1951.

Tomorrow, George talks about befriending jazz authority Marshall
Stearns at Yale, being summoned by Columbia chief Ted Wallerstein to
the company’s Bridgeport, CT, plant, being drafted into the Army in
1941, and hearing Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Billy Berg’s
in Los Angeles upon his return to the U.S. in 1946.

JazzWax clip: Here’s one of the sides from the Chicago Jazz album
for Decca that George Avakian produced between 1939 and 1940…