Category Archives: Musicians

Kickstarter, Pledgemusic…are fan-funding platforms the patrons of today’s music?

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

This is really unbelievable: former Dresden Doll’s Amanda Palmer just set a record for raising funds for recording, promotion, tour support, and an accompanying art book in Kickstarter. She asked her fans for $100.000 but achieved over a million dollars! Congrats! Wish I could do the same thing.

But to achieve this success  “You have to have fans before you can ask them to help you,” as Palmer herself has said. I heard from a friend, who knows her well, that Palmer is everyday in touch with her fans by twitting, facebooking, etc..  She has worked very hard to build up a devoted and engaged fan base which isn’t an easy thing to do. You have to love in what you’re doing and share it with your family, friends and fans. It means also that you have to believe in yourself and be very disciplined in your music life. I think Palmer’s success is certainly good news for independent musicians who play music for people and want to be a postive force in society.

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Recommended concert: Nashaz @ Sycamore (Brooklyn)

Date: Monday, May 14, 2012
Time: 8 pm
Venue: Sycamore (1118 Cortelyou Rd, Brooklyn, near the Q train)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Arabic music

Brian Prunka, who recently joined SoSaLa, is with his newest Arabic/Jazz/Oud/? project Nashaz back in town! He’se been laying low for the past few months, rehearsing some new music and preparing to make a record. He’s lucky to have some really amazing musicians involved who bring their passion and talents and personalities to the music: Kenny Warren on trumpet, Nathan Herrera on alto sax, Javier Moreno Sanchez on bass,  Vin Scalia on percussion. And Brian Prunka on oud. Nashaz is going to perform two new tunes.

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Interview: Marco Lienhard & his TAIKOZA – the man keeping Japanese culture alive?!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Who’s Marco Lienhard? What does he do here in NY? Oh, he’s a musician. No kidding. What makes him different from other musicians in NY? Many of these questions he’s going to answer in the video interview.

I have known Marco for more than thirty years. We met in Osaka, Japan, when we were thirty years younger. At that time I studied Kendo at a sports college and had just started playing sax. Marco, as far as I can remember, was an exchange student. We both were young and starting our adult lives far in the Far East. Both of us had no idea that we would stay in Japan for a very long time and would master a specific Japanese art. Marco is one of the first Europeans to learn and master the shakuhachi and taiko drum in Japan, and I myself become a Kendo master. In 2008 NY brought us together.

It is very interesting for you to know that people like Marco and me know more about Japan, the Japanese people and Japanese culture than the Japanese themselves. You might think, how can he say that? But it’s true because it’s a matter of fact that the majority of Japanese don’t know anything about Japanese classical music and their classical instruments? It’s unbelievable that a country like Japan lost track of many of its roots by the invasion of American and European cultures after the Second World War.

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DooBeeDoo supports the Kickstarter campaign by Search & Restore: NEW ORLEANS ! April 30-May 2

Text by the Kickstarters

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Search And Restore: New Orleans is a 3 day festival (April 30th-May 2) celebrating the incredible new jazz musicians, creative composers and improvisers operating in New Orleans today, organized by Adam Schatz (founder of Search & Restore), Justin Peake (founder of the Merged series @ the Dragon’s Den) and  Jeff Albert, (founder of the Open Ears series @ the Blue Nile).

FEATURING: James Singleton // Simon Lott // Mike Dillon // Justin Peake // Jeff Albert // Brad Walker // Steven Bernstein // Helen Gillet // Mike Gamble // Rex Gregory // Aurora Nealand // AfricaBrass // Brian Coogan // Scott Amendola // Mark Southerland // Marcello Benetti // Dan Ostreicher // Todd Sickafoose // Will Thompson // Tate Carson Quintet // Chris Alford + more TBA!

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