{"id":202,"date":"2008-04-06T18:58:11","date_gmt":"2008-04-07T01:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/?p=202"},"modified":"2015-02-16T06:50:57","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T06:50:57","slug":"gagik-hovsepian-i-called-his-home-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/?p=202","title":{"rendered":"Gagik Hovsepian the Tzar of Klarinet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-507\" src=\"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_front.jpg\" alt=\"Gagik Hovsepian, Glendale, CA\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_front.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_front-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_front-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_front-250x250.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Wanna blow my clarinet?<\/p>\n<style>\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-202 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'>\n<dl class='gallery-item'>\n<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_back.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_back-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Gagik Hovsepian back cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_back-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_back-250x250.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<dl class='gallery-item'>\n<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_a.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_a-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Gagik Hovsepian\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<dl class='gallery-item'>\n<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_b.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_b-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Gagik Hovsepian\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_b-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/gagik_b.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<p><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<p>Ah, Gagik. I have actually talked to his daughter on the phone once but I&#8217;ll get to that in a minute.<\/p>\n<p>The man blows his clarinet so vigorously that if you hooked him up to a windmill he could generate enough electricity to power a small Armenian village. This is high octane music with no-prisoners-taken attitude.<\/p>\n<p>The front cover is as lousy as the backside. But the message is clear. Gagik Hovsepian is at ease in both the suit-and-tie and traditional Armenian getup. This theme is extremely important at posh Armenian weddings in Los Angeles where Gagik is a fixture.<\/p>\n<p>The back also lists fourteen tracks in Armenian. I have no idea what the songs are called but it hardly matters. All are nearly identical consisting of a clarinet coupled with canned beats from a drum machine. They are so similar that I suspected the audio engineer somehow plastered one song all over the disc. But it doesn&#8217;t matter. The music rocks and you can listen to any of the songs and get the same good vibe.<\/p>\n<p>Now, how did I get to talk to his daughter? I saw a commercial for Gagik on a local TV station. Not a spot for a particular CD or anything like that but a commercial advertising Gagik&#8217;s services. I called the number at the bottom of the screen and got patched straight through to his home. I asked for Gagik, explaining to the person on the phone that I was an instant fan. The girl identified herself as his daughter. She was clearly embarrassed although I tried to convince her that her dad was a musical giant. Gagik was not at home so she gave me an address of a store that carried his stuff (the store was also a music recording studio). I love interacting directly with artists and their daughters without a middle man!<\/p>\n<p>You can purchase this and other CDs <a href=\"http:\/\/www.armenianmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/music_samples\/gagik.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Listen to Gagik here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wanna blow my clarinet? Ah, Gagik. I have actually talked to his daughter on the phone once but I&#8217;ll get to that in a minute. The man blows his clarinet so vigorously that if you hooked him up to a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/?p=202\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,9,32,48],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-records","tag-armenian","tag-bad-record-covers","tag-clarinet","tag-gagik"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}