The Armenian Jazz Sextet was an Armenian-American musical group who had a minor national hit in the United States with the song "Harem Dance" in 1957.

History

The group was started in 1954, by a group of six Detroit, Michigan natives who were of Armenian descent. It was formed for the purpose of performing at Armenian dances and weddings. A friend of the group gave them an opportunity to make a record, and they waxed two original compositions, "Harem Dance", an instrumental, and "Pretty Girl", a vocal. At a local performance a Detroit disc-jockey asked the group if they had any records, and they provided a copy of their record. Upon receiving airplay the disc proved highly popular locally among teenagers, and Kapp Records bought the master and distributed it nationally across the United States. ^[1]

Chart success

Released on Kapp single 181, the "Harem Dance" was reviewed by Billboard as a "swingin' original weirdy" that would draw disk jockey attention. ^[2] The record entered the Billboard Hot 100 on April 29, 1957, and remained for six weeks, peaking at number 67. ^[3] The record performed exceptionally well in disparate regions of the United States, as it was among the top 10 sellers in Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles. ^{[4] [5]} Ralph Marterie recorded a cover version on Mercury Records re-titled "Shish-Kebab". ^[3]

At the time the group was receiving national exposure it was a regular Thursday night feature at Haig's Bar in Detroit. ^{[6] [7]}

Instrumentation and personnel

The instrumentation used by the group was a combination of American and Armenian. They used clarinet and saxophone on the American side, but used the Armenian instruments oud, two dumbags, and a tambourine. ^[1]

The group consisted of: ^[1]

• Eddie Arvanigian
• Aram Manougian
• Arthur Melkonian
• Berge Minisian
• Tom Minisian
• Cory Tosoian

References