Souren Baronian, Fusing Cool Jazz and Middle Eastern Music

Born in Spanish Harlem in 1930, Souren grew up surrounded by music – the Latin sounds of his neighborhood, the ethnic Armenian music his parents played on a windup Victrola, and the fact of being geographically embedded in what he recalls as “the jazz center of the world.” In his early teens he was deeply devoted to Lester Young and Charlie Parker. He hung photos of them on his wall and, along with his friend and fellow Armenian-American jazz enthusiast Paul Motian (later a world-class and widely-recorded drummer) got himself into their gigs as well as performances by Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, and many others of the jazz elite of the time and place. At the same time, Baronian was also enamored with the recordings of the Turkish clarinetist Sukru Tunar. At the age of 16 he sought out and studied with Turkish clarinet player Safet Gundeger, a performer in the 8th Avenue “oriental” clubs that catered to speakers of Turkish, Greek and Armenian.

Souren’s father Mesrob Baronian was born 1890 in the village of Nbshi in Palu, Historic Armenia. He married Heghnar (Helen) in 1908 and immediately welcomed their first child, Margaret. Mesrob planned to temporarily leave his new family and arrived in the United States in 1909. But due to the horrific events of the Armenian Genocide, the Baronian family was separated. It would be nearly two decades when Mesrob would finally find his wife and daughter in a refugee camp in Aleppo, Syria.

By 1926, Helen and Margaret joined Mesrob in New York and soon after welcomed two sons, Harry in 1928 and Souren in 1930.

Mesrob was a community leader and a member of the Armenian Democratic League of America. Souren’s first gigs were at Armenian community events, where his audience expected both Armenian songs and American dance music, laying the groundwork for the rest of his career. The Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, which held annual Armenian concerts where young Souren played, is now remembered as the location of Malcolm X’s assassination.

Souren arranged Armenian concerts and enlisted Paul Motian among others for the “American” part of the program. On one occasion Gerry Mulligan jammed with the group. Souren’s taste in jazz ran toward the avant garde saxophone player Lee Konitz, the pianist and composer Lennie Tristano and, in particular, Tristano’s sax player and protege Warne Marsh. He approached Tristanto and ultimately studied with both him and Marsh. (Another amazing point of contact between Baronian and jazz royalty: During a military stint in Korea, he was in a band with Cannonball Adderley.)

“The Nor Ikes, along with the Vosbikians were the first bands made up of Armenians born in the United States. After a while we said, ‘Let’s make a 78!’” – Souren Baronian