Levon Malkhasyan is a person like the music he plays: emotional, clean and honest. He doesn’t plan anything, because the improvisation of jazz doesn’t let him plan anything in his life. He will found a jazz club (called as “Malkhas”) in Yerevan in December.
– Jazz is not logarithm in order to have rules. Jazz is free. Can you say who will pass near you in a minute when sitting in a café? I can’t do that either. This is the life, this is jazz. Jazz is improvisation. I can’t say anything about “Malkhas” jazz club yet, because it is a jazz club. If I would found a café, I would know how many plates, glasses and relevant things I would have to buy…We can’t say the same about a jazz club.
– Old people like jazz more. Do you think that only experienced people like jazz?
– I don’t think so. During the jazz festival most of the people at the concert hall were young. How would you explain this? I started to play jazz when I was 15. And I already had a lot of followers when I was 17. Now I am happy when I see that most of the people visiting jazz concerts are young people.
– Is there any kind of fashion for jazz?
– Jazz is free of any fashion, because it is ”life”. I interpret jazz like this. And life never depends on fashion. A lot of people interpret jazz in different ways. Jazz never gets old. A branch or a direction of jazz can become old, like the Dixie Land of the 30s. Jazz always takes something from life and changes it around.
– Now ethno jazz seems to be more popular.
– Ethno jazz is famous in the world and has a lot of followers. Nowadays the best Armenian representative of ethno jazz is Arto Tunjboyajyan. He is successful in Europe too. The jazz band plays a variety of music: starting from ethno, folk, classic and ending up with rock. Jazz and soul music players play and use the elements in different ways. Jazz elements are very famous. He
– Jazz is a lifestyle for you, which is full of improvisation. Do you know what will happen to you tomorrow, next week or next year?
– Everyone has his/her life style. We can’t say the same about everyone. There are jazz players who don’t like smoking, drinking and sex. But they play very good. Jazz is life, it changes every second and doesn’t repeat. Jazz can’t be defined.
– What about daily duties?
– I have never tried to live on the base of definitions. I have never planned my life for a period more than one month. It’s amazing when people try to plan everything.
– Have you ever played thinking that now people don’t like your music but they will like it in the future?
– No, I always play concrete jazz music. I like to make everything concrete in a second. I like this concretization in a second. If someone cannot improvise, he can’t play jazz. You can’t learn how to improvise at any conservatory. People like these improvisational emotions most. Improvisation depends on how well you can play the instruments.
– It is interesting that both the authorities and the opposition have loved hearing your music. How can you explain this?
– I am far from politics. I can’t say that everyone likes my music. I think the reason that they like me is because of the music that I play, which belongs to everyone.
– You have always been sentimental about our city. Why?
– Yerevan feels bad when someone “insults” it. Everyone who “insults” Yerevan gets a response, sooner or later, but they get the response. Yerevan is a very kind city. Now Yerevan is a little “insulted”, but there are good things too. For instance, recently we organized a concert of the music of 70s with Vazgen Asatryan. It was a very good concert.
– Yerevan had its own face in 70s. What about the present one?
– I believe that Yerevan hasn’t lost its face. I believe that it will respond both to bad and to good things in the future.
– Artists always try to make something new and try to differ from other people. And citizens want to have followers. What would you say about this?
– I have a lot of followers. I am proud of this. There is a big army of jazz players in Yerevan. Vahagn Hairapetyan, Armen Hiusnunts and our jazz players can gain fame everywhere. A big city like Moscow doesn’t have a big jazz band. We have two big jazz bands in Yerevan. Recently Georgi Garanyan was invited to Moscow to revive the jazz band of Lundstrem.
– Are there any nations who can say that “jazz is their own music”?
-There are many. For instance Cuba, Brazil.
– Are jazz players active people?
– Sure, they must be jazzy. There must be mountains in that country. Where there is no mountain, there is no drum. Where there is no drum, there is no jazz. Once I said that Slavonic countries didn’t play “hot jazz” because historically they didn’t have drums. They didn’t have the “Dhol”. How could they play “hot jazz”? Even if they play well, they still play “cold”. There isn’t swing in their music. There must be swing in jazz. Jazz is very interesting in Caucasus: in Azerbaijan, in Armenia.
– That can be considered as logical. People must hear each other crying in the mountains.
– Definitely. We used to have Dhol and Kochari long ago. And jazz has its own history in Armenia already. There was a big jazz band consisted of 30 people after Artemi Aivazyan in the Soviet Union. Then this jazz band wasn’t called the “Armenian National Jazz Band”, but it was called as “Jazz Band after Artemi Aivazyan”. He started this work, I am just his follower. I am also the follower of Kotik Orbelya, Arno Babajanyan, Melik Mavisakalyan. The previous generation founded the base for this direction. There were 4-5 big bands in Armenia in 60s. I can say that small bands were founded due to my efforts. I founded the first small band of the university after Bryusov. I founded the first trio together with Aram Abrahamyan and Chiko. Then Alexander Zakaryan joined us and we started to take part in festivals with this group consisted of four people. But only our generation knows about this. Only in 1970 we brought four Gran-Prix prizes from Kuibishev(Samara) city. Now a large delegation is coming to Armenia from Samara, and there are jazz players in the delegation too. I will be happy to meet them. They want to organize a concert with Armenian jazz players. I will be glad to organize that.
– Are you happy?
– I have had three dreams in my life. I wanted to visit the place where jazz was born, New Orleans. I did it 15 years ago. So, I can say that one of my dreams was fulfilled. My second dream was to organize a big international jazz festival with foreign jazz players in Armenia. I did that too. And my third dream is to found a jazz club in Yerevan. I am going to fulfil that dream too. So yes, I am happy. I am grateful for my city, because I could achieve my dreams in my lovely city. Yesterday one of my friends advised me to found a jazz club in Los Angeles and I said: ”You can do it in Los Angeles, but it would be better to try that in Yerevan”. In Los Angeles you can borrow money from a bank and found a club. I don’t want to speak about my club, because it is not open yet. I will invite everyone when my club is open. I will have my own club in my own country. I will be happy to see everyone there.”