How an Unlikely Man Became Davidoff's "Ambassador To the Good Life"

It seems funny that when SMOKE asked cigar impresario Avo Uvezian, "Who exactly is Avo?" he neglected to include the word "cigar" in the description. It just isn't necessary. When you look at Avo, you think cigars ... even when he isn't sporting the white bespoke Brioni suit or the trademark hat. Perhaps "crazy Aries" is the most accurate description. According to syndicated astrologer Linda Black, the prime objective of an Aries is "to be independent, self-assertive, and to set an action in motion."

Setting an action into motion is precisely what Avo did in the mid-1980s at Puerto Rico's Palmas de Mar resort, where he was playing at the pool's piano bar. Avo was already having cigars custom-made for his personal consumption and to give away to guests. But one day when a guest asked Avo for a cigar, his five-year-old daughter Karyn remarked, "If he wants a cigar, Dad, let him buy it." Avo agreed, and the action set in motion that day resulted in one of the world's most successful premium cigars.

Avo's newest creation, the Domaine Series, is proving to be magical at the retail level already. The new perfecto size is manufactured to the specifications found in an antique Dutch cigar mold from 1823 - a find at an antique show in Paris. Currently, only 10 rollers work on the limited edition Domaine line. Interestingly, the rollers who produce the perfecto sizes are specially trained to roll only that shape, having no experience rolling standard sizes such as Churchill or robusto. "The rollers are trained from 'zero'," explains Avo. "In this way, making this difficult shape becomes second nature to them, as opposed to a regular roller trying to transform a robusto into a torpedo."

Avo is currently celebrating a decade in the cigar business, and has three full lines of cigars (Avo, Avo XO, and Domaine Avo) and a full complement of accessories that bear his name, while he looks towards the future with enthusiasm. He sat down to talk with SMOKE in Davidoff's Cidav factory, in the Dominican Republic, where we were prepared to pose 20 questions to him. We asked him only one. In typical Avo fashion, his answer was about two hours long, and was one of the better stories we'd heard in awhile.

SMOKE: Who is Avo Uvezian?
UVEZIAN: He is a musician, a father, and a crazy Aries. He is from an Armenian family, born into a family of musicians, and who, at the age of 16, became the father of his family. When my father passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1943, my mother, two sisters, and I were in Lebanon. I graduated college at 20 and played piano to support my family. I started playing jazz, even though both my father and I were classically trained performers.

In 1944 or 1945, 1 received a record from my aunt in New York. It was Fats Waller playing "Ain't Misbehavin'," and the other side was "I Ain't Got Nobody." I loved the music, so I started playing it. My sister was a fabulous classical pianist with a marvelous technique, but she could not improvise. I, on the other hand, loved to. Improvising shows the capability to compose; when you improvise music, you are actually writing music on the spot. This is how I made my living.

Lebanon was a big R&R place area for the Allied Forces. I would play for a lot of U.S. soldiers, as well as English, Australian, and Greek forces too. It was the black Americans who introduced me to boogie-woogie. I asked one of the fellows where he was from, and he said, "Missour-ah." He told me, "Man, you play like a black man - you have the jazz in you." Thank God I did, because jazz ended up pulling me through a lot of difficult times.

Unfortunately, the music jobs started to dry up in Beirut, so my family decided to move to Baghdad.

A few weeks before going there, we saw Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. The Hollywood version of Baghdad looked pretty good, what with the fabulous minarets shooting into the sky and the beautiful women dressed in robes. When we got there, in 1946, the place wasn't so great. I was playing piano at a hotel near the Tigris. Thankfully, our stay in Baghdad didn't last very long. We eventually moved to Tehran, which was a bit nicer.

About two weeks into my Tehran stay, I was invited to play at the Shah's palace. Because I was born in Lebanon, I had to speak Arabic - it was a French mandate. My family was Armenian, so naturally I knew that language. My grandparents came from Turkey, so I also knew how to speak Turkish. By age 10, I could speak all of these languages, and along the way I even picked up German - by playing with a group of Austrian Jews, who came from a concentration camp in North Africa. (Avo speaks nine languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, and Farsi).

When the Shah finally met me, he asked his captain to inquire if I spoke French or English. I told him I spoke Farsi. He was amazed. He said, "Only two months here and you speak Farsi? You Armenians are something else!" So that broke the ice, and I began to play at all the diplomatic meetings at the Palace, mostly because I was able to play different ethnic music from various countries. The Shah's wife Sairia was from Bakhtiari. Her family owned one third of Persia - and Persia is three times the size of France. Unfortunately, one of her little princesses, unbeknownst to me, fell in love with me. And I hadn't even touched her! The Shah said, "You know, you're a commoner no matter what happens, but if the Princess wants you, there is only one thing I can do."

He put me on a plane to the States.

So I went from the Shah's palace to Washington Heights [in New York City]. What a comedown! But I still had my music to fall back on. I enrolled in the Juilliard School to study music composition. One of the classes I took was Accompaniment, where you play along-side a singer. One of the singers was from Jamaica, a beautiful black woman with a gorgeous voice. At this time, I was only in the States for a few weeks, with no idea of the racial situation. I started dating her, and, suddenly, all the other students wouldn't even invite me into their houses anymore. I couldn't believe it! That showed me what a different world I was living in.

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