Krikor Kélékian (February 28, 1898 – 1971), better known as Gregor, was an Ottoman-French
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 m ...
bandleader of
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
n origin.
Gregor founded a group called the Gregorians in France in 1928, whose sidemen included
Philippe Brun,
Edmond Cohanier, and
Lucien Moraweck, and which made some early recordings. In 1929-1930 he founded the ''Revue du jazz'', the first publication to cover jazz music in France. In 1930 he led a large ensemble on a tour of South America, including six weeks in Rio de Janeiro, and recorded in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
; his bands in the early 1930s included sideman such as
Alix Combelle,
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli (; 26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997, born Stefano Grappelli) was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the fi ...
,
André Ekyan, and
Michel Warlop. He died in
Malente
Malente is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is about 5 km northwest of Eutin and 35 km north of Lübeck.
The historian Sigrid Jahns
Sigrid Jahns (''née'' Langer) (born on 26 October 1 ...
, Germany, in 1971.
References
*Michel Laplace, "Gregor". ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed.
Barry Kernfeld.
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1898 births
1971 deaths
French jazz bandleaders
de:Grégor et ses Grégoriens