SFJAZZ presents Naghash Ensemble
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Tuesday, March 25, 2025

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Music by John Hodian Texts by Mkrtich Naghash (15th century) and Kostandzin Erznkatsi (14th century)

[7:32 PM] {lights down; house introduction}
[7:32 PM] {Reading №1: “This world is a house of wealth and abundance…”}

1. [7:33 PM] Agahootyan
   [7:42 PM] {applause}
   [7:42 PM] {Reading №2: “If in this world, by sin you wander, oh miserable one, you will regret your death”}
2. [7:43 PM] (unidentified tune #1)
   [7:53 PM] {applause}
   [7:53 PM] {Reading №3: “The creator of all things was angry at us…”}
3. [7:54 PM] (unidentified tune #2)
   [8:08 PM] {Greetings from John Hodian; NE history}
   [8:12 PM] {Reading №4: “Oh my soul, woe to you a thousand times if a grudge you keep”}
4. [8:13 PM] (unidentified tune #3)
   [8:26 PM] {applause at set end}
   [8:27 PM] {done}

[8:45 PM] {lights down; enter JH & TM without others}

1. [8:46 PM] (unidentified tune #4)
   [8:50 PM] {applause; enter others}
   [8:50 PM] {Reading №5}
2. [8:51 PM] (unidentified tune #5)
   [9:04 PM] {More commentary from John Hodian}
   [9:08 PM] {Reading №6}
3. [9:09 PM] (unidentified tune #6)
   [9:25 PM] {applause at set end; all off – no bow}
   
   Encore
   [9:26 PM] {all return; JH introduces the band; raffle; JH describes the final tune}
4. [9:33 PM] (unidentified tune #7)
   [9:39 PM] {final applause}
   [9:40 PM] {show ends}

Naghash Ensemble

• Hasmik Baghdasaryan: soprano vox;
• John Hodian: piano;
• Emmanuel Hovhannisyan: duduk;
• Tigran Hovhannisyan: dhol;
• Tatevik Movsesyan: soprano vox;
• Aram Nikoghosyan: oud;
• Arpine Ter-Petrosyan: alto vox.

Another crazy day! Up early to drop my car off for service and I'm stuck in traffic hell because of a pileup somewhere in the MacArthur maze Bay Bridge complex, ugh! Thankfully, BART is running in time, and I make it from West Oakland to Downtown Berkeley without any hassle, and haul up to RSF just in time to lead my Tu AM class, yay!

Class over, I cycle over to Rockridge Trader Joe's to pick up groceries and call Ting to come down and save me from the long ride uphill: it's easy enough on my e-bike, but not nearly so pleasant on the old Mongoose. We get home just after noon and I have enough time to change clothes, and eat a bowl of yogurt, fruit, nuts and granola. When I sit down at my computer, I get about ten minutes work done before the power goes out: friggin' PG&E! This has been happening way too often… It's like there's no consequence for their negligence. Cursed be the executives who rip us off in the name of public safety!

So instead of catching up on computer tasks, I head out to the yard for some mindless dead heading of my fortnight lilies. It's too warm to be working in full sun right now (over 80 F in March, aiyah!), so I concentrate my work in a semi shaded spot at the foot of the driveway: an hour later, I've made a big difference: the flowers are looking very tidy now. As I rise to go get a rake for cleanup, Ting hollers to let me know the power is back, yay!

I pop back inside and find a message from the car shop: come get your rust heap, the damages are gonna be about $500, oy oy oy! This news complicates our schedule, as we'd been planning on heading to SF around 6 pm for a big bowl from the Poké Bar in the Market on Market before tonight's SFJAZZ show. Now I need to pick up the car before 4:30 PM. This is good for getting to the Poké Bar before they close, but it vastly increases the time that needs to be killed before showtime.

I rally for a quick shower, then dress and soon enough we're off to the car shop. Traffic on Hwy 13 induces momentary anxiety – ack, an unforeseen delay! – but we slide by on the left without too much hassle, and end up getting to the shop at 4:25, whew! The car is ready ($469, such a deal!), and shortly thereafter we're slow rolling through the West Oakland BART parking lot in search of open spaces. Two loops later we're parked, then walking into the station. Kind of crazy to experience the flood of people exiting the 4:30 train: isn't it a bit early to be heading home for the day?

Not many people heading into SF on our train, but it's plenty crowded when we exit into market. It's also plenty warm! Gotta be at least 70 in SF right now – weird! The poke bowl is delish, and we're so early that our next stop is Beer Hall. Ah! The joy of times passed… And sadness for friends no longer with us. I'm glad that Beer Hall is open today: hopefully things are looking up in this part of downtown! My choice tonight is an Altamont Beer Works Dub Red imperial nitro ale: think Guinness, but pale red. I like it enough to want more! The pour is extra smooth (nitro, yay!) on first sip, with malty roasty notes to hit the mark on the after taste. Yum!

At 6:45 we head over to SFJAZZ. It's cooling off just a little, but nowhere near enough to mandate jackets yet: maybe after the show! We head upstairs to find a pre show party going on. An electric trio (guitar, bass, drums) is playing middle east inflected tunes while patrons sip drinks and talk. There seem to be multiple merch tables set up, but it's crowded enough that we settle on benches at the periphery instead of pushing into the crowd to peruse the wares. Maybe on our way inside later? For now it's nice to sit and jot notes and listen to the pre show music.

The crowd thins a little as it gets closer to show time, so we make a round of the merch (interesting, but nothing tempting enough to crack my wallet), then head in to our seats.

The show begins and we are immediately swept away into a foreign sound world. The piano grounds us with a semi-classical tempermant, and the three singers edge us off in the direction of opera or art song, but the addition of duduk, dhol and oud make it very clear that we're not in Kansas anymore! My overall impression is that the music of the Naghash Ensemble is rather intense, probably because of the repeated unison between the piano and singers. In retrospect, I probably should have bought some CD's: they're not available from the usual disc mongers! Guess I better make plans for a visit to Armenia!

{I did some follow up research and found that you can buy their merch online!… as long as free trade and international postage goes through!}

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2025 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2025 event list! ☸ On to the next event!