Charles Aznavour

Born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian in 1924, he carried Armenian roots into a French career that redrew the borders of chanson. The voice — clear and ringing high, gravelly low — became the instrument for songs he wrote or co-wrote by the hundreds, spanning languages and generations. Cocteau cast him in Le Testament d'Orphée in 1960; by then the trajectory was set. When the 1988 Armenian earthquake hit, he founded Aznavour for Armenia with impresario Lévon Sayan, and later took on diplomatic posts: Armenia's ambassador to UNESCO from 1994, then to Switzerland and the UN. He toured until the end…