Shea A.J. Comfort

Bio:

Shea A.J. Comfort is a multi-instrumentalist currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. Although acting and dancing since the age of twelve, he began his education into non-Western music by studying flamenco guitar and dance as a freshman at U.C. Irvine.

However, at the end of that school year, a very pivotal series of events transpired which allowed him the opportuniy to continue and eventually complete his university studies at the American University in Paris. It was during this time that he first heard the Armenian duduk, and the experience made such a deep and lasting impression on him that he spent the next few months just trying to find as many recordings as possible to listen to. However, at that time, no-one outside of the community knew anything about Armenia-let alone duduk music, and there were no sources in any of the record shops. So, what was left was to go to various Armenian cultural events and ask if anyone among the crowd happened to have any old recordings of duduk music. One evening, by chance, he was introduced to an oud player from a local music group. It turned out that they were the first group to play Armenian traditional music in France and that there was someone there, Philippe Chabazian, who played all of the winds including the duduk and maybe he could help out. The following week Shea went to their rehearsal and immediately began studying the duduk with Philippe. After months of private lessons (all the while attending weekly rehearsals as a listener), Shea was eventually invited to join the Djivani ensemble, where he played with them for the next four years until he graduated from university and moved back to the states.

Upon his return, there were no Eastern Armenian ensembles or musicians in the San Francisco Bay area to play with. But, there were quite a few Balkan groups and players around. He wound-up helping to found a local Balkan dance band called "Anoush Ellas", where he taught them Armenian and they taught him Greek, Rom, Bulgarian, etc. He played with them for the next five years.

After "Anoush Ellas", there was an opportunity to work with local didgeridoo guru Stephen Kent and Eda Maxym who were revising a project called "Trance Mission" and he got the opportunity to add his flutes to some great pre-existing material. They had a couple of well-received gigs and put out a really nice demo CD, called "Here", but the combination of both 9/11 and the internet changing the traditional music business created a slump and the project never took-off. However, happily enough, one of the tracks did make it to Eda's new CD: "The Imagination Club".

At the moment, in addition to teaching the duduk and recording the occasional soundtrack and specialty project, such as Lily Storm's upcoming solo release, Shea is currently working in two bands: with "Turlu" he is back to playing Balkan dance music with some old and new friends, and for the second one he is collaborating with Leslie Bonnett and Lily Storm on a more intimate, sit-down, listening-type ensemble that features eclectic musics and songs of the world.

Past collaborations have also included: "The Minds Fire", an independant film by Vivi Letsu; "Angel of Mercy" from Sharon Wiener's CD "Boundless"; multiple meditation/Yoga CD's done with Silvia Nakkach; Michael Nielson (film); and most recently Kitka.

-Shea has been fortunate to study duduk with Philippe Chabazian, Ararat Petrossian, Albert Vartantian, and Djivan Gasparian.

For Hungarian/Transylvanian flutes, he has worked with Berán Pityu and Kerényi Róbi during a six-month extended stay in Hungary.

The shevi and ploul/kaval were also introduced to him by Philippe Chabazian.

The laoúto and defi, however, he picked-up on his own.

Member Since:

May 25, 2007

Members:

Shea A.J. Comfort: all flutes (Armenian duduk, duduk "dam" (drone), Armenian ploul (kaval/ney), Armenian shevi (fipple flute), Transylvanian furulya (long flute), along with Greek laoúto (strings) and MIDI (on "Moldvai Chochek").

On the Trance Mission Demo tracks ("TNK" & "Mind and Fire"): Stephen Kent (didgeridoo), Eda Maxym (vocals), Peter Valsamis (percussion, electronics).

Influences:

*FROM ARMENIA: Ashough Sayat-Nova, Gousan Sheram, Komitas, Vatche Hovsepian, Abarantsi Valode, Megel Malkhassian, Glakho, Ardavast, Tchorni Hratcho, Garo Tchathoulian, Gorgi Minassov, Sergei Simonyan, Djivan Gasparian, Ararat Petrossian, Philippe Chabazian, Liudvig Garibian, Gevork Dabaghian, Albert Vartanian, M, and Hovo! ....................................................................... *FROM GREECE/BALKANS: Tassos Xalkias, Petros Lucas Xalkias, Vassili Soukas, Vasili Saleas (Uncle), Giorgos Maggas, Nikos Filipidis, Manos Achalinotopoulos, Christos Zotos, Aristeidis Vaslilaris, Chronis Aidonides, Ensemble Theodore Vassilikos, Stelios Petrakis, Ross Daly, Sami Malek, Selim Sesler, Mustafa Kandireli, Ferus Mustafa, and Somal Mustafa. ........................................................................ *FROM HUNGARY/TRANSYLVANIA: Téka, Csík Zenekar, Ökrös, Zengö, Méta, Halmágyi Mihály, Zurkula János, Tankó Dezsö, Tímár Viktor, Karacsonyi Lazár, Netti Sáni bacsi, Berán Pityu, Juhász Zoltán, Kerényi Róbi, and Berecz András. ....................................................................... *FROM EVERYWHERE ELSE: Munadjat Yulchieva, M.R. Shajarian, Hussein Alizadeh, Keyhan Kalhour, Huun Hur Tu, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Sri Manilal Nag, Ram Narayan, Imrit Khan, Manolo Caracol, Terremoto de Jerez, Antonio Mairena, La Fernanda y La Bernarda de Utrea, Diego del Gastor, Melchor de Marchena, Matt Molloy, Martin Hayes, and Sarasehan Krawitan Surakarta. _______________________________________________ *OTHER, NON-MUSICAL: Peter Brook, Wim Wenders, Daniel Boorstin, Brian Greene, travel, food/dance, gardens and tea.

Sounds Like:

Traditional folk music (mostly flutes), with the possibility of ranging from pure village to jazzy/world influenced.

Record Label:

unsigned