Author Archives: Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Music listings – 12/3 through 12/9

1. Himalayas

Date: Monday, December 3, 2012
Time: 9:30pm
Venue: Zebulon (258 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Ticket: free
Genre: marching band music

Kenny Wollesen and his marching Band HIMALAYAS is a marching band experience like no other. Preferring to play on the street and have its audience participate in the show, they play anywhere & anytime and have been known to play on bridges, mountain tops, beaches, in elevators, on grammy nominated records, on huge uptown stages & in dinky downtown clubs. With an ever-changing cast of characters, a songbook of todays freshest composers and a penchant for smashing genres–HIMALAYAS is a spontaneous, organic, ephemeral pleasure-filled situation!

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Special Women Around Us: Aung San Suu Kyi and Yoko Ono voicing their support for Pussy Riot.

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Pussy Riot another photo shoot by Vanya Berezkin (2012)

I just found out today that the Burmese democracy voice Aung San Suu Kyi, on her recent  landmark visit to the United States, spoke out for the release of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. And that Yoko Ono and Amnesty International awarded them this year’s LennonOno Grant For Peace 2012 in September.

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American-Iranian sax player feature: Hafez Modirzadeh – creating a different kind of Jazz

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Being myself an Iranian I’ve been always looking for Iranian or American-Iranian musicians living and playing here in the States. Iranian musicians who either don’t play the LA type of “Iranian Pop music” nor Persian classical music, but a kind of music which is contemporary and original. One of them I found out is the Iranian-American composer, saxophonist, theorist and educator Hafez Modirzadeh who lives and teaches  in LA. Unfortunately since coming to New York I haven’t have the chance to meet him. In fact I missed two of his New York concerts in the last two years due to my own music commitments.

The first time I heard of Modirzadeh was about ten years ago, when I still lived in Tokyo. A Japanese jazz journalist surprised me with a cassette of Modirzadeh’s music which sounded “oriental jazzy,” very cool and original.  I was impressed by what I heard. At that time I didn’t understand what he was playing. Today I know: he played “chromodal” which is a a cross-cultural musical concept and music style, developed from his own American jazz and Iranian dastgah heritages.

But I liked his music and the tone of his tenor sax. Last spring with the release of my CD SoSaLa Nu World Trash I used this occasion to mail Modirzadeh and introduce myself. He responded to my mail shortly writing:

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Dance and music: Sven Kacirek’s new music video “Nutcracker/Pas De Deux”

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Here is another new Sven Kacirek video Nutcracker/Pas De Deux again made and produced by the German video artist Agnieszka Krzeminska. As always I love the visuals which really match well with the soundtrack of the video.

For many years, my friend and music colleague Sven Kacirek has been closely collaborating with the choreographer Antje Pfundtner, whose next modern dance production, The Nutcracker, will premiere at Kampnagel in Hamburg, December 12, 2012.

Antje Pfundtner is one of Kacirek’s favorite modern dance choreographers. Previously he composed music for her two dance pieces “Res(e)t” and Tim Acy and Die Kandidaten.  For this occasion Kacirek  re-recorded and re-arranged Tschaikowsky ‘s composition Pas de Deux. The music is mostly electronic with some analog sounds in it. Very ambient, minimal and repetitive.

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Event Recommendation: Hamid Dabashi – The World of Persian Literary Humanism

A discussion on the origin and influence of Persian humanism on Islamic civilization

Date: Thursday, November 29, 2012
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm (Followed by a book sale and signing.)
Venue: Asia Society (725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, NY)

What does it mean to be human? Humanism has mostly considered this question from a Western perspective. Columbia University professor and author Hamid Dabashi asks the questions anew, from a non-European point of view. His groundbreaking study The World of Persian Literary Humanism presents this rich tradition as the creative and subversive subconscious of Islamic civilization. In conversation with Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Robert I. Williams Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

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