Category Archives: NY Musicians

Al-Madar at The Stone in NYC on Friday, October 5, 2012

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Unfortunately I missed the AL-MADAR show at The Stone on Friday, October 5, 2012 because I was still in Tokyo. As you might remember AL-MADAR  was opening up for my band SoSalA at  at the CD release party at Nublu in March. Since that show the band has went through member changes. Al-Madar became  a new 5-piece instrumental band of the New York Arabic Orchestra, fronted by Bassam Saba of Lebanon , a renowned figure of Arabic music and director of the New York Arabic Orchestra.  performing on the oud, saz, nay, and western flute and violin, in collaboration with Arabic percussionist and drummer April Centrone, joined by guitarist Gyan Riley, Timba Harris on violin/viola and trumpet, who’s also a member of one of my favorite bands the Secret Chiefs 3, and the versatile electric bassist Brian Holtz.

Bassam Saba and his NY Arabic Orchestra has been featured in DooBeeDoo a couple of times for the last two years. I’m actually surprised that Saba joined this ensemble because usually, as far as I know him, he wouldn’t play at small clubs like the STONE. Guess his young members convinced him to join and be the leading part of this ensemble.

Watching and listening to the videos this ensemble plays a mix of Arabic music to Afro Beat and progressive rock. What is missing is a human voice which would express an important element of Arabic music: melancholy.

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Tokyo Report P.4: my sax sound joins my mother-in-law on her trip to heaven?

Text and photo by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

The reason for my trip to come to Tokyo, as you already know, was to attend my wife’s mother funeral who passed away recently. As usual I took one of my horns with me, this time it’s my soprano saxophone, which is smaller and lighter than my tenor saxophone. I had no idea, how my sax would get involved in my life in Tokyo. Of course no concerts were planned by me and playing on Tokyo streets was out of question.

In the morning of the day when I was going to say my farewell to my mother-in-law before the cremation, I went to the Sozen-Ji Temple near by. I took my soprano with me. When approaching the temple the Kannon worship ceremony had already started. I did my prayer which was dedicated to my wife and her mother. After the ceremony I took a walk in the temple site and sat down on a bench on the east side of the temple complex. It was a lovely morning, around 6:30am. I just observed the people around me who were mostly elderly people, some joggers and young Chinese women who seemed to live and work here.

After a while I got the impulse to play my sax…a musical ode to my mother-in-law. A piece of music which would take off the fear from her and would make her “hot” trip to the other world easier and faster. I recorded the music with my iPhone.

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Dafnis Prieto: one of my favorite NY drummers in NY

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Since coming to New York I have played with many drummers, but there is one drummer who I haven’t played with yet, but would love to: Dafnis Prieto. Whom I have already introduced to you, my dear reader, last year in this post.

What I love about Prieto is that he transposes elements from his Afro-Cuban musical background, rumba and son, into a jazzy drumming style incorporating congas and timbales in his playing. He’s able to to play very complex, poly rhythmic structures with extraordinary speed and precision. No wonder he’s one of Michel Camilo’s favorite drummers!

He’s putting out a new CD and here is his EPK to it. Very well produced. In the next DooBeeDoo music listings I will announce his CD release event dates at the Jazz Standard in NY.

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Musician in NY: why and how I met Michael Wimberly.

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

My first encounter with the djembe was, when I played with Salif Keita and his band for the first at the Blue Note in Tokyo in 2001. Before the show I had no chance to rehearse with him. When Salif called me on stage to join him in one of his songs, I felt so insecure and was so scared. When he started the song I didn’t know what to do about myself. But things instantly changed when I started to play my solo. I could feel instantly that the djembe player was following me. He quickly developed a cool rapport with me. By doing so he gave me confidence in my performance. I could feel that he enjoyed the melodies and noise I created. Eventually we were grooving together, so did the whole band. Salif and the whole band enjoyed my contribution to the song. The audience got excited as well, so when we finished we received a standing ovation. What an experience!!!

Playing three nights with Salif at the Blue Note made me decide to look for a djembe player for my own band. I searched in the internet for djembe players in Tokyo and found out about an African restaurant in the outskirts of Tokyo which had African live music once a week.

Some weeks later there was a Senegalese music and dance show directed by the Senegalese sabar player Wagane N’Diaye Rose. Before going I thought that the sabar drum is kind of a djembe drum, but when I saw him playing I found out that I was wrong. It’s a different drum but played with the same spirit. Wagane invited me to sit in and wowwwwwwwwww it was great playing with him. I fell in love with him in the same way I did with Salif’s djembe player. A couple of months later he joined my band The Tehran-Dakar Brothers. After moving to New York I had following Senegalese musicians in my band: Mar Gueye (sabar), Masamba Diop (tama or talking drum), Cheikh Tarou B’Baye (sabar), Jean-Marie Collatin-Faye (djembe) and now Michael Wimberly (djembe and drums) who is American.

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Iranian alternative rock bands moving out from Iran: Yellow Dogs and 127 in NY!!!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi!

Two things happened recently which made me write today’s post: first of all last Saturday at the “Celebrate Brooklyn” music festival I happen to meet the Iranian trombone player Salmak Khaledi who’s a member of the Iranian band 127, which is one of the first Iranian rock bands that toured the USA. (Their music is a mixture of rock, jazz and Iranian melodies.) We talked about our bands and about being a musician here and in present Iran.

And three days ago I got an email from a music colleague and friend Lukas Liget asking me whether I have heard of the Iranian band Yellow Dogs. First I thought that I didn’t know them but then I remembered that they were one of the Iranian band featured in the Iranian movie No One Knows About Persian Cats which DooBeeDoo featured some time ago.

Because Iran seems to be so far away from NY, people here think that there’s no no pop music, no indie rock, no club music…no techno, hip hop…even no Jazz. Not at all, there’s been a thriving underground music scene in Tehran for more than ten years!

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