Dollar Bin Delights: Shadows In The Casbah by Artie Barsamian

Boston-born Artie Barsamian kept the Armenian music of their father alive with records like this 1959 cooker for Kapp Records.

Here's the scoop...

While flipping through dollar-bin cast offs in Toronto recently, I came across a generic looking budget line belly dance two-fer called Navel Maneuvers – geddit – put out by Audio-Fidelity in the mid 70s,  repackaging two of Mohammed El-Bakkar's 60s recordings as a 2LP set. 

The first album on paper-thin vinyl was scratched beyond playability although the second LP, on much heavier wax,  didn't seem to belong with the package. Although it was just as dusty, it had relatively few marks and upon closer examination, the KAPP Records label LP was "Shadows In The Casbah" by Boston's "King of Armenian Swing" Artie Barsamian and His Orchestra. Admittedly, it' s not the greatest record of the genre, and may not be Barsamian's most dazzling display but it's definitely a step up from another torched Mohammed El-Bakkar reissue. 

That the wrong LP jammed in the sleeve was another so-called "belly dance" record was fortuitous – hey, it could've easily been something really shlocky on KAPP by Roger Williams, Jack Jones or Hugo Winterhalter – but not entirely surprising.  For many folks with a passing interest in music from the Middle East, these belly dance records were interchangeable. The name of the fez-wearing character leading the band made no more difference than the nationality of the moustached character playing oud, as long as the music sounded vaguely exotic, that's all that really mattered. Well, that and the sleeve art of course. No doubt a good percentage of these records were sold in the 60s based primarily on cover appeal. 

Artie Barsamian

A Boston-area flooring magnate by day and musician at night, Antranig "Artie" Barsamian was the second-oldest of six children born in South Boston on August 23, 1928 to violinist father Mihran and Antaram Barsamian. Mihran played Armenian folk music exclusively and made sure Artie carried on his dream of keeping Armenian music alive in America with his siblings who performed in Artie's bands and regularly appeared on his recordings throughout his career, albeit uncredited. 

By the time he turned 20, Artie had formed his first six-piece band to perform traditional Armenian music and began releasing rootsy 78 rpm recordings on Gregart Records which he started with his best friend, Gregory Avedikian before switching to Mihran label named in honour of his father. A comprehensive retrospective of Barsamian's early 50s work seems long overdue. 

When Barsamian recorded Shadows In The Casbah, he was already deep into the late 50s exotica era and KAPP probably saw the potential for a relatively low-cost way to cash-in on the current belly-dance album craze circa 1959. 

While the overall after-hours vibe of the album is bit more subdued than Barsamian's self-released earlier recordings – it makes sense that KAPP were trying to appeal to the cocktail crowd – it's still an enjoyable listen showing off the considerable instrumental prowess that the family ensemble developed by playing together over the previous 10 years. 

Now an accomplished bandleader who understood both the requirements of his target audience and the commercial goals of the label execs who signed him, Artie crafted a well-paced set meant to provide a certain otherworldly background ambience for the bachelor pads of the home hi-fi enthusiast rather than to soundtrack a hand-clapping and hip-shaking celebratory event. Thankfully, Barsamian's Shadows In The Casbah eschews the cornball major label notion of adding a Middle Eastern-tweak to contemporary hits of the day and instead focuses primarily on updates of folkloric material in the public domain tastefully chosen and arranged by Artie himself. The resulting album is an entirely schmaltz-free affair which, for a KAPP release of the period, is an impressive achievement in itself. 

Perhaps most notable is Artie's oud-led rip through "Miserlou" which a young guitar-playing fellow South Bostonian of Lebanese descent named Richard Anthony Monsour would transform into a surf rock anthem just three years later after moving to California and changing his name to Dick Dale. While there's no proof that Dick Dale got the idea to rework "Miserlou" in 1962 from Barsamian's version, it's nevertheless possible that the aspiring musician heard it while growing up in the nearby suburb of Quincy, Massachusetts. In any case, Barsamian would go on release 15 albums (including "Minuteman Goes East" where he's decked out like an 18th Century New England militia man with holding a clarinet instead of a musket) as the "King of Armenian Swing" while Dick Dale would become known as the "King of the Surf Guitar" and enjoy international acclaim in 2003 when his version of "Miserlou" got pride of placement in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1. 

You can check out both Artie Barsamian and Dick Dale's versions of "Miserlou" below followed by the complete Shadows In The Casbah and Caravan East albums and a couple of his self-released gems. For further listening, exotica fans should check out Numero Group's excellent Technicolor Paradise compilation from 2018 which features a couple of Barsamian's contributions to the genre. 

Those interested in hearing some vintage Belly Dance music on vinyl in a Toronto club setting should check out A Man Called Warwick's Belly Belly party at La Palette (492 Queen St. West) on Saturday (February 22). Doors open at 10 pm. The cover is $10  before 11 pm and $15 after. More info here. 

LINKS

Armenian Museum of America Artie Barsamian