Event

Taksim in concert

Taksim, meaning improvisation in the Middle East, is also the name of the band created by multi-woodwind player and percussionist Souren Baronian. Taksim's sound is a hybrid of Baronian's ethnic
Armenian heritage and the jazz idioms of his New York upbringing. Taksim fuses traditional instruments such as oud, kaval, dudook, G-clarinet, doumbek and Middle Eastern rhythms with the jazz vocabulary and bebop sensibility which surrounded Souren Baronian as he grew up in Spanish Harlem. He studied for many years with Warne Marsh and Lennie Tristano, also playing and studying with the greats of the Middle-Eastern music world. Oud master, Haig Manoukian developed his maqam and rhythm techniques in the 1970's in the many Turkish, Greek and Arab clubs that flourished at the time in New York. More recently, inspired by extensive travel in southern Spain, he has absorbed flamenco and jazz influences into his Middle Eastern style. Based in New York City, Taksim has performed in most of the city's major jazz clubs, as well as in Europe and at the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Jazz Festival. Taksim also features Paul Brown, bass; Mal Stein, drums; and Polly Tapia Ferber, doumbek.