With Passing of Mike Vosbikian, Original Member of Pioneer Dance Band, An Era Ends

When Mike was drafted in 1942 during World War II, he served his country with honor, as did his brother Joe. Older brother Sam got home leave to take care of the family, and he kept the band going while he was at it. Sam got a hold of an oud which he learned to play, and told his younger cousin Jimmy (son of uncle Thomas Vosbikian, a violinist), who was practicing jazz clarinet with friend Hank Mardigian on saxophone, that the two of them were Armenians and therefore “should play Armenian music!” The two joined the band and help keep it alive through the war years until Mike returned to take over on saxophone duty. (Jimmy stayed in the band, while Hank branched off to form the Gomidas Band and managed to replicate the Vosbikian Sound while discovering oud legend George Mgrdichian.) Charlie Mardigian and Peter Endrigian were no longer with the band after the war. The new band, the one which cut the 22 tracks at 78 rpms and which was destined for fame, featured Albert “Junior” Santerian on dumbeg (son of Bedros Vosbikian’s dumbeg player, Harry), Steve Ajdaharian, a crossover from the local ACYOA, playing piano and introducing numerous new songs, and a switch for vocalist Joe Vosbikian from drum set to a special oversized dumbeg custom-made in the Vosbikian manufacturing facility. New brother-in-law and recent arrival from Baghdad, vocalist Jirair Hovnanian was the only band member not born in the US – but he too was a post-Genocide diasporan child, born to distant relatives that had ended up in Iraq – Philadelphia’s answer to Onnik Dinkjian. By the way, Onnik has stated on the record that it was seeing the Vosbikian Band play for the first time at an engagement in New York, that inspired him to want to learn to play the oud and sing “that kind of music” – and we know that his desire to sing, at least, was a smashing success.

On the Vosbikians’ 1957 LP, “Vosbikian Presents Armenian Folk Dances,” Mike furthered his musical influence by the band’s recording of his own composition, Tepo Jan, an ode to Jirair Hovnanian’s father, Stepan, and now a Vosbikian band classic. It’s an Armenian-American tale of a father berating his American born son to find a suitable bride, only to be told that Tepo has already invited a girl over for dinner, vaghe irigoon. The charm of this simple but catchy tune is only increased by being sung entirely in Malatyatsi-Armenian-American dialect.

Jimmy Vosbikian, as lead vocalist, sang on the original recording of Tepo Jan. Mike was never featured on vocals in the band’s early recordings, but he eventually became a solid vocalist in the band’s later, post-1970 sessions, with an off-the-cuff bluesy delivery reminiscent of jazz legend Jack Teagarden. Tepo Jan was a favorite, but of all the songs that Mike made popular, the most famous was no doubt Dolarjee, a number which as Steve Vosbikian Jr. has put it, is a “Vosbikian-ized version of Akh Im Anoush Yar.” How much of the song Mike wrote himself and how much he got from an earlier parody version of the classic Armenian folk song (and it had many parody versions), is a question whose answer he took with him (along with the song’s actual lyrics). But essentially, the tune is a warning directed at a wealthy, older Armenian man (the “Dollarjee”) about the perils of looking for a bride later in life simply on the strength of money. Though the Dollarjee foolishly persists in looking for a dasnuyen ver, ksanen var, harsuntsoon, Uncle Mike tells him to just take a shot of oghi and “ays yerke ganche boralov!”

Many have noted that not only were the Vosbikians a musical inspiration, but that their music crossed all barriers, generational as well as political, in the Armenian community. It didn’t matter how old or young you were, or what church or agoump you went to — everyone loved the Vosbikians. I hesitate to say it, but perhaps they were part of the reason that Philadelphia is known to this day as the most unified large Armenian community in North America. Their popularity inspired not only Onnik Dinkjian, but the growth of all the other bands in the Armenian-American community, such as the Nor-Ikes of New York, the Ardziv of Detroit, the Artie Barsamian Orchestra of Boston, the Aramites of Worcester, the New England Ararats of Providence, the Gomidas Band of Philadelphia, the Barrites of Los Angeles, the Hye-Tones of Detroit, and more. Surpassing the earlier regional-based Armenian folk music prominent at hayrenagtsagan picnics, the new pan-Armenian-American style of music originated by the Vosbikians helped the youth and even the older people to come together and form one Armenian-American community. The rise of prominent virtuosos like George Mgrdichian, Chick Ganimian, John Berberian, Hachig Kazarian, and Richard Hagopian would not have happened without the “kef music” scene that the Vosbikians helped create.

The Vosbikian’s fame was such – and this was one of Uncle Mike’s favorite stories to tell – that in 1949 the Vosbikian Band was contacted by the US State Department for a very important mission. The government was hosting the Shah of Iran, here on a state visit to meet with President Harry Truman. They were throwing a grand reception ball for the Shah at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Since there were no Persian musicians to be found to play for His Highness, the State Department chose the hottest Armenian band in the land – the Fabulous Vosbikians. As Uncle Mike told it, the Shah had recently divorced his first wife, and women were paraded before him in his search for a new queen, as the Vosbikians played from a balcony area, heavily guarded by Secret Service agents. Incidentally, the Shah met actress Grace Kelly that night, whom he unsuccessfully began wooing. Can you imagine Hollywood starlets dancing before Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to the 10/8 rhythm of the Armenian Highlands? Mike Vosbikian lived it.

Uncle Mike, with his cool-dude sunglasses, saxophone, and still-brown 1950s hairdo, ended his days at age 98 as an icon for younger Armenian musicians, especially his son Mike Jr., nephews Sam, Steve, Greg, and John Vosbikian and Steve and Peter Hovnanian, grand-nephews Chris and Steve Vosbikian Jr., and grand-niece Karinne Hovnanian Andonian, who are all active in music. Predeceased by his beloved wife Viola, his brothers Sam and Joe, and his sisters Sarah Hovsepian, Elizabeth Hovnanian, and Virginia DerHagopian, he was the last remnant of the Original Vosbikian Band, and almost the last remnant of the entire generation of Armenian-American musicians active in the 1940s and 1950s.

He leaves behind his sons Mike Jr. and Mark, their wives, his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and his vast extended family.

Though his death marks the true end of an era, as Armenian-American musicians we will always have, enti temen (from the other side), the voice of Uncle Mike ganchel-ingad yerkere in our ears, with the style that only he possessed. May that voice and that beloved saxophone, and most importantly, the spirit he brought to the music, which was the beating heart of the Vosbikian Band, remain with us and inspire us for years to come as we proudly continue what he and his brothers started 80 years ago.

Long live Uncle Mike, and long live the music of the Armenian People!