Alexandra Avakian
My father, Aram “Al” Avakian, was probably just a kid when he picked up the family camera one day and started taking pictures. I never asked him what year it was. But photography was part of his young life. So was jazz.
Those two passions came together when my uncle George, a record producer, asked my dad to be the visual sideman during now historic recording sessions for Columbia Records. From Duke Ellington to Chet Baker, Dad photographed them all. He even persuaded George, his older brother, to sign Miles Davis. And he once impersonated Harry James — in French, no less.
