Author Archives: Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Concert Review: Siavash and Kaveh Haghtalab…imagine a garden you’ve never been in before. This music will take your hand, and show you into this garden.

Venue: Cafe Nadery

Date: Saturday, January 4, 2014

Photo courtesy of Cafe Nadery

Photo courtesy of Cafe Nadery

Concert Review by Matt Cole

On Saturday, the 4th of January, I went down to Cafe Nadery in the West Village to hear some Persian classical music, played by the brothers Siavash and Kaveh Haghtalab. Cafe Nadery is named for an establishment in Tehran which, in the ’40s and ’50s, was one of the spots at which intellectuals gathered. The version in New York is a long, narrow room, with many pictures of notable Iranian writers and thinkers on the walls, and a bookshelf located behind where the musicians were to play, filled with a variety of titles, including books on Iran, chess, film noir, and a large selection in Farsi.

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Event Review: globalFEST 2014…a marvelous accomplishment, and service to the musical community

CollageCanvas14_unflat_8Date: January 12, 2014
Venue: Webster Hall (NY)

Review by Dawoud Kringle

I arrived early at the globalFEST 2014, held at NYC’s Webster Hall. Things were already livening up. People were pouring in and milling about in anticipation of a great musical event.

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Music Listings – 1/20 through 1/26/2014

1. Jeremy Wilms’ “DIAMOND PEOPLE” CD Release Party

Date: Monday, January 20, 2014
Time: 7:15pm
Venue: Drom (85 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009, 212- 777-1157)
Ticket: $15
Genre: progressive-jazz-improv music

Whether playing alongside jazz legend Chico Hamilton or indie rockers TV on the Radio, collaborating with members of Sonic Youth or with Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto, laying down grooves on Broadway stages or in Brooklyn Afrobeat band Antibalas, multi- instrumentalist Jeremy Wilms has enjoyed a fruitful career playing other people’s music. Now, with Diamond People, Wilms finally seizes the opportunity to reveal his own individual sound with a wide-ranging and vibrant set of original music.

Wilms is a founding member of the bands Chin Chin and Big Mono and currently leads the prog rock band NOMOTO. He is also a gifted singer/songwriter, with an album in that vein in the works for 2014. Wilms has composed music for several soundtrack recordings, including the Sundance Channel series Iconoclasts, the CNN documentary Far From Home, and PBS’ online educational series Math Club.

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A Documentary Film: “The Breath Courses Through Us” by Alan Roth about the early 1960s avant-garde jazz group, the New York Art

Featuring: Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, Milford Graves, Reggie Workman, Amiri Baraka with: Steve Lacy, Pierre Dørge and Ben Young. – Guests: Evan Patrick, Verna Gillis, Lois Graves, Thurston Moore, David Murray, Maya Milenovic Workman, Margaret Naber and Yolo Tchicai

The U.S. premiere will take place on Friday evening, January 31, 2014 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The world premiere of The Breath Courses Through Us took place at the FIDMarseille-Festival International de Cinéma
(http://www.fidmarseille.org) in Marseille, France, in July 2013.

The Breath Courses Through Us (2013) is a documentary film by Alan Roth about the early 1960s avant-garde jazz group, the New York Art Quartet. The film focuses on the group’s 35-year reunion, while reaching back through their recollections of their foundations and innovative musical ideas. The year 2014 is the 50th anniversary of this group, and a revolutionary period in jazz music, which declared its existence in the October Revolution in Jazz, in October 1964.

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CD Review: Richard Bennett…interpreting raga through American musical form; and creating a triptych as a framework

a1351448752_2Artist: Richard Bennet
Title: Raga & Blues
Label: Mystica Music (India)
Genre: Raga blues?

Review by Dawoud Kringle

The CD begins with a tambura and sparse notes on piano that introduce an alap in Raga Malkauns. This gradually opens up into a rolling swarm of notes somewhat reminiscent of Michael Harrison’s piano work. Above this thick tapestry, melodies would appear and disappear. Occasional suggestions of a teehai would rise.

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