Video 2 | Catskilleen Jampan: A Song’s Journey

Lectures on Armenian-American Music by Ara Dinkjian, 08/04/25 (Last modified 08/04/25)

Hi everyone. I'm Ara Dinkjian and I'm here with my second video for the wonderful Houshamadyan website. Today we'll be talking about one song in particular, and I've chosen Catskilleen Jampan because I believe it tells the story of the Armenians starting off in their homeland, and through events such as the genocide winding up in other homelands, in this case, America.

Now, the Catskill Mountains in New York, were really known as the Borscht Belt. And this is where many Jewish families spent their summers. There were many Jewish resorts, and then the Armenians discovered it and stake their claim, there also. And indeed, many summers, many Armenians would spend in the Catskill Mountains.

Now, there were really two kinds of people, I believe, people who loved the beach and people who love the mountains. For those Armenians that love the beach, at least on the East Coast, they would go to Asbury Park and Belmar, New Jersey. These are wonderful beaches. But those who love the mountains and they were many, went to the Catskill Mountains for the summer. And as a result, many Armenian owned and run hotels opened, such as the Washington Irving Hotel in Tannersville, which was owned by Mardiros, or Varbed Cheboghlian and his wife Mary.

There was also the Waverly Hotel, also in Tannersville, owned by John or Melkon Ohannesian, and he also owned the Dardanelles Armenian Restaurant in Manhattan and the Melkon Candy Company in Queens.

There was the Shady Hill House in Hunter, New York, originally owned by Mihran Tutunjian and later by Simon Kolligian. Probably less known was the American Hotel in Tannersville, New York, which was owned by C. Anmahian and L. Alexanian, who also owned the Anmah restaurant in Manhattan, and finally the Mar-Mara Hotel in Tannersville that was owned by Nazar Shah Tutunjian.

But of course, I love music and I'm here to talk about music, specifically the song Catskilleen Jampan. Now, I believe many Armenians that are not aware of it will be disappointed to discover that the melody itself is not an Armenian melody. It originates in Turkey and it is a folk song called Kassab, which means butcher.

And the first few pieces we are going to listen to, were recorded well as late as over 100 years ago, in Turkish. And the first one will be Ibrahim Effendi singing Kassab. And it's interesting because the label says Foxtrot.

The second example, also from about a hundred years ago, is sung by Dervish Abdullah. And the label says Yeni Kassab, which means New Kassab. For me what's interesting about this is the instrumentalists play the introduction in 9/8 tempo, which is like Tamzara, and then when the singer starts it is kind of fluctuating between 4/4 and 9/8. It's a bit interesting.

Next we're going to listen to a very rare recording by an Armenian, Sorin Kaplanian. It was rare because it was recorded for the Baidaphon label in Cairo. And he's singing in Turkish Aman Kassab.

The last version from abroad is a woman, Louisa Hanoum, and she's singing the same song. But to me, because of the instruments, it's starting to sound like what we regard as Armenian American music. There's some similarities.

Now we're going to start to listen to some versions that were recorded here in America. But the first versions, were still not with the Armenian words that we know, but still in the Turkish words. And here is Mgrdich Duzjian singing Kassab, recorded in 1929, in New York City.

The next version we're going to listen to is by a Sephardic Jew named Louis Matalon. He was also a oud player. And here's his version of Aman Kasap:

At last we have, now a version in Armenian. However, it's still not the Armenian words of Catskilleen Jampan on that we're so familiar with. This is a version that was recorded a year before that one. It's by Oscar Kevorkian, recorded in 1947, in Los Angeles. So this is the same melody, but with different Armenian words.

Finally we come to the first recording of the song that we all know as Catskilleen Jampan. It was recorded by Arziv Orchestra in 1948, in Philadelphia. And what we've learned is that the dumbek player, K. [Krikor] Nersesian, wrote the words.

I would like now just recite the translation of the words to the songs just you heard:

So now I would like to digress just a bit. And tell you a quick story that, when my father came to this country from France, he was 17 years old, and, of course, he wanted to know where the Armenians hang out. And there was two places: There was the church and there was the Catskill Mountains. Well, when he went to the Catskill Mountains, he was surprised to find out that Oudi Hrant was performing at one of the hotels and, they said to Hrant, is it okay if this young man, sings a couple of numbers and apparently Hrant said yes, because my father told me that he sang a few songs with Oudi Hrant accompanying him. And I thought to myself, wow, dad, you started at the top and you've been going down ever since. Now, of course, that's just a bad joke, but, the truth is, it must have been a thrill for my father, to come to America and suddenly be accompanied by Oudi Hrant.

Well, the other part of the story is that Jack Chalikian, who's a wonderful kanun (kanon) player now living in California but originally from New York, Jack's father was a real kefdji, he loved the music and was a very dear friend of Oudi Hrant. And Jack's father also owned a reel to reel tape recorder at the time, when not too many people did well. Anyway, a few years ago, Jack called me and said he has all these reel to reel tapes, and he sent them to me and I tediously went through them hour after hour. And suddenly I hear, wouldn't you know, a recording of Oudi Hrant and my father in the Catskill Mountains. Just by sheer luck, Jack's father was there and recorded that moment. And so even though it's not Catskilleen Jampan, it was recorded in the Catskills. Here's my father, Onnik Dinkjian and Oudi Hrant.

One other story that my father told me about Oudi Hrant in the Catskill Mountains, was that when he was there, my father noticed Hrant got up very early in the morning. And some of you may or may not know, Hrant also played the violin besides the oud, and he walked down the hall gently playing Aravod Louso [Morning Light, an Armenian sacred Hymn of Sunrise], which is dawn, as a way to gently wake up the guests. And I thought, wow, can you imagine waking up with Oudi Hrant playing around Aravod Louso?

Well, our next example of this song is by Mike Sarkisian, who was a true, unique character. He recorded the song in English as The Road to the Catskills in 1970, recorded in Las Vegas.

And finally, we'll listen to the Vosbikian band from Philadelphia. I believe they are the prototypical Armenian American sound. This is their version, recorded in 1975 of Catskillin Jampan.

Before closing I would just like to tell you a slightly personal story. My Uncle Ed Tembeckjian, many years ago had a radical surgery, and part of his jaw was removed. And, as he was recovering, he decided to go to the Catskill Mountains to let everybody see the results of the operation. And in his own words, let's just get this over with, let everybody see me.

And when I heard that story, it kind of made me understand how important the Catskills was to the Armenian people. Everybody was there. Everybody would see each other. Everybody would catch up on the latest news. And the song itself, actually, I believe, tells that whole story of where we started and where we came and why we came. And the words actually describe the American Armenian experience. And so that's the end of this video. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to the next one.