Author Archives: Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

DooBeeDoo recommends: Justice for Jazz Artists and Local 802 present a free concert by NEA Jazz Master Lou Donaldson

802PanelFlyerDate: Friday, February 1, 2013
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: St. Peter’s Church (619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, NYC)
Ticket: free

The National Endowment for the Arts ( NEA ) – the nation’s highest honor in jazz – announced Lou Donaldson to one of the four 2013 NEA Jazz Masters. He’s recognized for “his lifetime achievements and significant contributions to the development and performance of jazz. His distinctive blues-drenched alto saxophone has been a bopping force in jazz for more than six decades.” And he will receive a one-time award of $25,000.

This concert will open up with a special guest appearance by the vocalist  Keisha St. Joan !  It will also include a panel discussion: “Coming Together as One: Fighting for Your Rights on the NYC Club Scene,” featuring a distinguished group of players, writers and activists.

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CD reviews: Two CDs from New Orleans based cellist, singer, composer and improviser Helen Gillet

Reviewed by Matt Cole

Eclectic cellist Helen Gillet came to the attention of DooBeeDooBeeDoo when she joined SoSaLa onstage on electric cello in New Orleans a few months ago. While the music is certainly not the same as the free jazz-Iranian-smorgasbord of SoSaLa, it certainly measures up in terms of musicianship and creativity. We have here two recent CDs of hers to review.

ROBCDCOVERART-300x300Artist: Helen Gillet
Title: Running of the Bell
Label: self released
Genre: jazz/contemporary music/improvised music

The first one I listened to was her trio CD Running of the Bells, on which she is joined by Doug Garrison on drums and percussion, and Tim Green on tenor sax, conn o sax, and occasional percussion. While the CD might wind up being filed in the jazz (and in particular ‘free jazz’) section of a record store due to the overall sound and strong group improvisations to be found within, there’s definitely more than jazz on this album. The opening track “Waking Milo” begins with solo cello arpeggios, almost reminiscent of Bach’s solo cello suites, before the percussion and then tenor sax join in, adding to what becomes a somewhat dissonant conversation. The second track, “Lilly,” starts with a bluesy, smoky, back alley film noir saxophone sound, with answering brushed drums, before joined by pizzicato strings. There are very free moments, such as “Flemish,” with its 3-way conversation which includes some incredible use of cello overtones, and yet the very next track (“Red”) draws on the sounds of metal and funk.  Celtic sounds (“Talk to Ruff,” “Tourdion”) also make appearances, and after all the different influences; and at one point Green’s sax playing reminded me of Jessica Lurie (“Gulmar”). The CD ends on an almost avant classical vibe with “Hillcrest Python.” All three musicians are outstanding, but the best part of the CD is the way that they interact together; always listening and conversing, but never totally dominating the conversation, even when one is taking the lead. Even when playing in totally free space, the music is always going somewhere, not noodling for the sake of noodling, and the musicians are always making something together, not playing past or over each other. This is a very challenging CD to be sure, but very rewarding for those who like eclectic improvisations that have a lot of substance.

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Event review: A Night at globalFest 2013

gf-imageDate: January 13, 2013
Venue: Webster Hall (NY)
Text by Dawoud Kringle

On Sunday,. January 13, 2013, globalFest 2013, a non-profit organization presented a festival of 12 artists within one night at New York City’s famed Webster Hall. This Herculean effort brought an amazing variety of artists from around the world. It was, with the overlapping scheduled performances, impossible to catch everyone. But for the loyal readers of DooBeeDooBeeDoo, I put every effort in covering what I could.

Kayhan Kalhor

Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan (photo by Dawoud Kringle)

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Musicians issues: Show Me The Money! – The Nuts And Bolts of Digital Royalties

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Last week I attended the APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) WORLD MUSIC PRE-CONFERENCE 2013, where many concert presenters and festivals book much of their upcoming year.  Rock Paper Scissors, INC.’s  founder Dmitri Vietze put together a two-day world music pre-conference from Thursday to Friday as part of the APAP conference.

I attended only the Thursday panels (State of the Recording Industry and Technology Tools for Artists, Labels, and Concert Presenters) because they were related to musician issues. I wanted to find out what’s working and and what’s next in the music business. Honestly there wasn’t anything new the panelists could tell me. They just confirmed me that all the things I have done in NY in the last 5 years were correct or “standard procedures”. At the end all panelists agreed that musicians have to take care of their own businesses: be their own managers, publicists, labels and distributors. They have to learn very fast how Internet technology works and how to use it properly. Why? Because the ultimate goal for any musician is to have a fan base. Without fans nothing can happen or work, whatever you try to do. It doesn’t matter how many fans you got. One fan is already enough for the start, but the number must grow gradually.

Speaking of myself, as you already know, I joined the NY City musicians’ union Local 802 last year to find out what they “know” about music business and musician rights. Also to find out how I can apply their knowledge into my musician life. For this reason I decided to use DooBeeDoo as a platform to share my “new” knowledge with all music lovers and musicians around me.

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