Author Archives: Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Iran’s Tribute To Funk Music in the 60s and 70s: An Unlikely Treasure Chest Of Funk

Text reprinted from npr music: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112829658

Mehr PouyaWritten by EGON (SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 11:18 AM ET)

A few months ago, the record dealer who sold me the majority of his Iranian collection told me that his recent finds in Tehran — including Mehr Pooya‘s solitary LP of fuzz-guitar-soaked sitar funk — were going to a well-heeled international collector. He’d already sold the heavy psych pieces and the Iranian presses of Led Zeppelin albums and The Beatles’ Abba Road [sic] for stacks of euros before I got to dig through his collection.

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Docu Film New York Premier Screening: “Djuke with On Ka’a” by Thomas Carillon

Theatre 80Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Time: 7:30 to 10 pm
Venue: Theatre 80 St. Mark’s (80 St Marks Pl New York, NY 10003)
Ticket: free

Tonight is the New York premier screening of Thomas Carillon’s Djuke with On Ka’a. A documentary film that explores the world of East Village musician, artist and ex-squatter activist On Ka’a Davis….the opener for djuke music!!

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Victory! Winter Jazzfest musicians make historic gains…organizing matters!

Text by Maggie Russell-Brown

(Reprinted from Volume 115 No. 2 February, 2015 issue of Allegro, the magazine of the New York City musicians’ union (AFM Local 802). For more information, see www.Local802afm.org)

As some of you may recall, musicians performing in the Winter Jazzfest and the Undead Music Festival came together and launched a grassroots effort in 2011 to improve wages and working conditions. Through that campaign, hundreds of musicians won real gains in the form of a collective bargaining agreement.

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Docu Film Screening: “THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION ” by Stanley Nelson

The Black Panthers Official PosterDate: February 11, 2015
Venue: MoMA (New York)
Time: 7:30pm

In the 1960’s, ready or not, change was coming to America. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and those seeking to drastically transform the system believed radical change was not only feasible, but imminent. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. Whether they were right or wrong, whether they were good or bad, fact is, more than 40 years after the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, the group, and its leadership, remain powerful and enduring figures in our popular imagination.

THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION weaves the varied voices of those who lived this story — police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, those who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.

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