Charles "chick" Ganimian

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Charles ‘Chick’ Ganimian was an Armenian-American musician known mostly for playing the oud. Born in Troy, NY, to Armenian parents, died in December 3, 1988 in New Jersey. Ganimian played Turkish, Armenian, and Arabic music in the “kef” style of the Armenian immigrants from Turkey to the US. He played at Armenian-American dance parties as well as belly dance shows in the Manhattan ethnic nightclubs and elsewhere. Ganimian was born in 1926 in Troy, N.Y., to Armenian parents who had emigrated from Marash, Turkey in 1922. In his home, he heard the music of the "old country" performed by his father, Nishan, an amateur oud player and singer. Since the family spoke both Armenian and Turkish at home, Chick became fluent in both languages. The basic repertoire he used throughout his career was molded by the music he heard and learned in his youth. Major influences were his father, Oudi Hrant Kenkuloglu, and Oudi Yorgo Bacanos. When he was ten, he studied the violin, attaining some skill on the instrument. When he was seventeen, the family moved to Washington Heights, N.Y. Chick served in the Army during World War II from 1944 to 1946. In a HOLIDAY Magazine profile from 1963, senior editor Arno Karlen quotes Chick as follows: "When I was seventeen we moved to New York City, and the next year I went into the Army and served two years. When I got out, I didn't know what to do with myself. I was playing the oud a lot, learning from my father, but there wasn't any way for someone like m

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