Tavitjan brothers biography of william
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Garo Tavitjan is an international music artist and award-winning drummer, composer, arranger and producer. Over the past 25 years, Garo has performed over large concert performances of his own in the countries of Europe, England, Asia, United States and the Balkans. World renowned critics from the magazines Jazz Times, All About Jazz, Concerto, New York Spectator, Guardian, Daily News, and Jazz Corner highly evaluate his music and performance. Garo's musical expression is a unique blend of several musical genres combined with the expressive elements of jazz. His musical beginnings are linked with his legendary father, a rock icon who is the founder and most influential ambassador of the Balkan & Macedonian modern irregular rhythms.
Garo received a scholarship from Berklee in and at the Wolfgang Jazz Academy in Germany in and studied elementary and music in high school in Skopje. Garo received many awards as a percussionist, drummer and producer. He made the first Macedonian sna
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Rayford Griffin was born February 6, , in Indianapolis, Indiana, to a minister father (Reverend Thomas J. Griffin) and a mother (Geneva Brown) who was a Howard University music major, so his music appreciation started early. It was the drum solos of Art Blakey and Max Roach on albums bygd his late, lamented uncle, trumpeter Clifford Brown, that lured him to the drums. Rayford got his first drum (a field snare) at the age of 10 and played in his grade school marching band and orchestra. He got his first full set of drums (all the way from Japan) at
From the 8th grade through high school, he studied with Tom Akins, principle timpanist for the Indianapolis Symphony, who provided Rayford with a polished precision on drum set, snare and tympani that would give him a lifelong edge over most other drummers. “I used to take turns playing James Brown beats with other drummers my age,” Rayford states. “They could play but didn’t necessarily know what they were doing. Tom gave me a firm und
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Diran and Garo Tavitjan: ‘We Represent Macedonia But Respect Our Armenian Roots’
Your father, Garabet Tavitjan, was considered the most acclaimed Balkan drummer. He was a founding member of the greatest Macedonian rock band Leb i Sol and founder of the legendary Garo & the Paramecium band. So it is no wonder his sons Diran and Garo followed in his footsteps.
Garabet was born in Skopje, from the earliest years he was interested in music, as a small child he took piano lessons from his aunt Hermine, and shortly after started playing guitar. A little bit later his primary instrument became drums. He played with every significant musician at that time in Macedonia. His talent and ability were above usual and he was considered prodigy on drums that led him to more serious engagements in music. After playing in the earliest rock and jazz bands in Macedonia, he recorded the very first LPs in the history with Skopje’s festival orchestra. Later he became the founding member of Leb i