I honestly have no clue if anyone on this thread is still active on here, but if so, I have some updates as to Raffi Hakopian. I was rather disappointed in the lack of information about Hakopian available online, so a while back I managed to find and contact his grandson in California. I wasn't sure how much he'd be willing to tell me, but it turned out he was quite happy someone was interested in his grandfather, and told me a lot more about him.
Raffi Hakopian was born 16 December 1932 in Tbilisi, Georgia. His father, Yeghishe, was a Turkish-born Armenian who fled to Georgia at the age of 15 to escape the genocide. Raffi's father played the tar, and his mother was a singer- Raffi also played tar. He began taking violin lessons at age 6, but they were short-lived, and otherwise he was mostly self-taught. When he was about 16, he played at a wedding in Tbilisi, and I believe that was his first gig. He lived in Tbilisi until 1967, at which point he moved to Moscow, where he regularly performed at nightclubs and places like that. In 1976/77 he traveled through Rome on his way to Los Angeles, where he lived next for eight years. One evening while playing at a club (presumably in LA) alongside an Armenian singer w/ a band, the bass guitarist tells him that he has some contacts- people who know Leonard Cohen, and says that they were looking for a violin player; bass guitarist asks Raffi if he's interested. Raffi, of course, said yes and was given the phone number of someone w/ Leonard. This, of course, resulted in Hakopian's work on Recent Songs and a number of later albums, as well as touring w/ Leonard for two months in 1979.
Also in 1979, Hakopian released an album of his playing called 'Veratartzir,' which consisted of a great many traditional Armenian songs w/ his own improvisations on both violin and tar.
In 1985 he moved to New York City for two years before moving to Yerevan for three. He spent four years in Moscow after that, another four in LA and then eight more in Moscow. In 2006, he moved for the last time back to Yerevan, where he passed away on 28 Feb 2015.
Hakopian released a few albums of his music; the first was Veratartzir, but he would later release 'Enchanting Violin Music' and 'Gypsy Fever with Eva' in 1996, and a pair of albums, 'Husher' and 'Sirvats Parer' in Armenia, which I don't believe were ever available in the United States. In addition, he recorded a couple sets of music titled 'Unique Violin' and '2007,' which features him playing a mix of Armenian, West European and jazz style music on electric violin.
Hakopian's grandson actually sent me all of these albums, along with some video of Raffi's live performances in Yerevan, Moscow and NYC, and a LOT of photos. With his permission, I've been able to upload some of this music to YouTube for anyone interested to enjoy. Parts of the 'Veratartzir' album can be accessed here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... oUqjfWrGxx
If anyone wants to know anything more about Raffi, please ask- I'd be happy to answer what I can, and inquire about what I don't.
