Avo Uvezian

On April 27th 2020, Ronny, the youngest of Avo's sons, passed away suddenly.

In 1983, when Avo's daughter Karyn was born, he went to Switzerland for her christening. Avo had a Cuban cigar after the meal and was not happy with the price. His friend mentioned that they should make their own. Uvezian traveled to the Dominican Republic, where he searched for two years for a satisfactory production facility. Avo finally met Hendrik Kelner, and after smoking samples, Avo offered Kelner twenty-five percent more than he had originally offered. His presumption was that paying Kelner more would ensure that Avo cigars would receive the best tobacco. Michael Roux advised Avo to use attractive packaging. In the first year, 120,000 Avo cigars were sold. By the third year, Avo sold over 750,000 cigars. In 1995, Davidoff paid Avo Uvezian an estimated $10 million for the rights to distribute his cigars. In 1996, more than two million Avo cigars were sold.

Uvezian claimed to have written the music for Frank Sinatra's song Strangers in the Night, even though the song is credited to Bert Kaempfert. When he was living in New York, a friend who knew Frank Sintatra set up a meeting to discuss one of his melodies. Somebody else had lyrics to it under the name "Broken Guitar". While Sinatra liked the melody, he asked for the lyrics to be altered. Sinatra recorded the song in 1966. However, before Sinatra heard the music, Uvezian had sent it to Kaempfert, for it to be published in Germany. While he is not officially credited for the song, Uvezian stated that Kaempfert himself had given him credit for its creation, including in a written letter.

Uvezian was drafted during the Korean War and sent to Fort Dix in New Jersey where he was put through infantry training. After impressing his officers with his musical talents, Uvezian was taken out of the Infantry and put into band training. When he arrived in Korea, the band would play at an Officers Club where they got paid twenty dollars a night. Uvezian was honorably discharged in 1952.

Avo met his wife, Marie Sahakian, while performing at a New York resort in the Catskill Mountains in 1951. They had three children: Jeffrey, Robert, and Ronny. Following a divorce and a move to Puerto Rico, Avo met and married his second wife. They had a daughter together: Karyn.

After a year of performing in Iran, the Shah arranged for Avo to travel to the United States of America in 1947. While living in New York, Avo played for multiple bands while studying classical piano and composition at the Juilliard School.

Avo Uvezian (March 22, 1926 in Beirut, French Lebanon – March 24, 2017 in Orlando, FL) was an Armenian-American cigar manufacturer, jazz pianist and composer.