Levon Ichkhanian

Although his superb After Hours session of 1997 focused mainly on fusion, Levon Ichkhanian is a flexible player who’s also knowledgeable of hard bop, classical, and Middle Eastern music. Originally from Beirut, Lebanon, Ichkhanian is certainly of Armenian descent and may be the kid of jazz pianist Edouard Ichkhanian, who became musical movie director for Armenian vocalist Adiss in 1974 and do too much to popularize contemporary jazz-influenced Armenian pop. Ichkhanian, who was simply 12 when the family members transferred from Lebanon to Toronto in 1977, began on acoustic traditional guitar like a preteen, but relocated to the guitar when he was 13, playing his 1st professional gig support Adiss. Ichkhanian was 16 when his live shows in Toronto gained him an area within the Canadian All Celebrity Jazz Honours, and he was 17 whenever a scholarship from your Ontario Arts Council allowed him to review in the University or college of Toronto’s jazz workshop. At 24, he made up the soundtrack for the 1988 self-employed film Searching for Nothing at all. In 1996, he analyzed with guitarists Jim Hall, Pat Martino, and Steve Khan, and co-led the program Kickin’ Jazz with drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie. And in the past due 1990s, he performed within the soundtracks for numerous independent movies, including You Can’t Defeat a Woman as well as the Hockey Video game in 1997, and Shadowmakers in 1998. Although your guitar is definitely Ichkhanian’s main device, he’s also proficient using the oud (a lute that’s prominent in Arabic music), the bouzouki (which is definitely heard primarily in Greek and Armenian music), as well as the mandolin.