Harry Tavitian (born 11 August 1952) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist and singer, whose style covers

free-jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians durin ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

ethno-jazz Ethno jazz, also known as world jazz, is a subgenre of jazz and world music, developed internationally in the 1950s and '60s and broadly characterized by a combination of traditional jazz and non-Western musical elements. Though occasionally equ ...

and

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

. Tavitian was born in

Constanța Constanța (, ; ; rup, Custantsa; bg, Кюстенджа, Kyustendzha, or bg, Констанца, Konstantsa, label=none; el, Κωνστάντζα, Kōnstántza, or el, Κωνστάντια, Kōnstántia, label=none; tr, Köstence), histo ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

parents. After attending the Mircea cel Bătrân High School in his native city, he graduated from the Academy of Music in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. He came to prominence in 1978–1987, when he set up a jazz club, organizing recordings and listening sessions where he presented albums by some of the world's most prominent jazzmen. The club was hosted by Constanța Library, where he was working at the time. He plays piano solo, as well as with the Orient Express septet and with the Black Sea Orchestra. ''Creativ'' is the duo formula with

Corneliu Stroe Corneliu Stroe (22 October 1949 – 11 June 2017) was a Romanian drummer and percussionist. Born in Bucharest, he moved at the age of 2 to Mediaș, due to his father's job. He grew up there, and later became a member of several local bands, among ...

(drums and percussion). Musicians he performed with over the years include:

Johnny Răducanu Johnny Răducanu (born Răducan Crețu; 1 December 1931 – 19 September 2011) was a Romanian jazz pianist of Romani people, Romani ethnic background, whose family has a long musical tradition dating back to the 17th century. He was born in Bră ...

, Cserey Csaba, Mihai Iordache, ,

Alexander Bălănescu Alexander Bălănescu () (born 11 June 1954) is a Romanian violinist, and founder of the Balanescu Quartet. Biography Bălănescu was born in Bucharest, and at the age of seven went to the Special School for Music there. His teachers in Romania we ...

, Edi Neumann,

Hanno Höfer Hanno Höfer (born 8 July 1967 in Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian movie director, producer, and musician. Early life and education Höfer was born in Timișoara and is of German-Romanian descent. When he was about one year old, he moved to Buc ...

Ivo Papasov Ivo Papazov (or Papasov; bg, Иво Папазов; born 16 February 1952), nicknamed Ibryama (), is a Bulgarian clarinetist. He leads the "Ivo Papazov Wedding Band" in performances of jazz-infused Stambolovo music, and is one of the premier cr ...

, ,

Wolfgang Puschnig Wolfgang Puschnig (born 21 May 1956 in Klagenfurt, Austria) is an Austrian jazz musician (saxophone, flute, bass clarinet) and composer. Biography After his studies of saxophone and flute at the Vienna Conservatory Puschnig was the founding ...

Hans Kumpf Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

, Floros Floridis, Jimi El Lako, and Mario Florescu.

Discography

*''Open End'' (Stuttgart, 1984, with Hans Kumpf) *''Horizons'' (London, 1985) *''Transylvanian Suite'' (London, 1986) *''East-West Creativ Combinations'' (Bucharest, 1988) *''the Creation'' (Bucharest, 1991) *''There's Always a Hope'' (Sofia, 1993) *''Black Sea Orchestra'' (Athens, 1998) *''Axis Mundi'' (Bucharest, 1999) – with Orient Express

References

External links

Harry Tavitian – official website
*
Harry Tavitian's blog

All About Jazz – ''Harry Tavitian''
1952 births Living people People from Constanța Romanian people of Armenian descent Mircea cel Bătrân National College (Constanța) alumni National University of Music Bucharest alumni Romanian jazz pianists 21st-century pianists Blues pianists Avant-garde jazz pianists {{Jazz-pianist-stub