NEWS
1/20/2023
Reg. networking: SoSaLa got another rep in Europe. This time for Germany: Hubl Greiner. Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required.
1/11/2023 – Jeff Beck Died Today!!!
(I’m not sure whether this track of mine is the right one to dedicate to Jeff. But give it a listen. The track is called “DEATH” from the CD SADATO NO MORE REGGAE.)
One of my blues-rock guitar heroes JEFF BECK died today. He’s nine years older than me. What a loss for me, the international musicians and music communities!!!
I’ve never seen him playing live, but the records and YouTube videos have always helped me to connect with him and observe his musical journey. Besides of Jeff, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Frank Zappa were all my heroes in the 60s and 70s. They all gave the electric guitar a personal and emotional voice and character which can’t be copied by other instruments.
1/10/2023
Liking Your Music
By Dawoud Kringle
My name is Dawoud Kringle (a.k.a. Dawoud the Renegade Sufi). I’m a musician, writer, artist, and whatever else I can get away with. I have known Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi (a.k.a.SoSaLa) for a long time. We have played music together and shared many experiences and adventures together. In fact, I was with him when he was still formulating the concept of Musicians For Musicians.
One relevant incident stands out in my memory. At one point during one of his performances some years ago, he played something that was truly beautiful and transcendental. It was a moment where he exceeded his own abilities. I looked at him amazed while the ghosts of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane nodded in approval.
The first thing you must realize about Sohrab is that he is an original. I can think of no one who plays like him. His combination of influences and musical and cultural roots produced something that really stands out as unique. Being a quintessential Musician With Attitude, he has the courage and conviction to do what he believes is right. If people like it, he would certainly be grateful. If they don’t, he is not going to compromise his musical vision or his personal convictions.
I understand and respect this because I feel the same way about my music.
Beyond this is the passion in his work. It’s the Blues, but his Blues. His Blues have their roots in Persian, Japanese, and Harmolodic elements. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, his music is not definable by genre or style. It’s really only definable by emotional content. This is the Blues of a warrior’s inner sense of compassion and love.
This is who he is. Anyone who doesn’t hear that in his music is not really hearing it.
If you are someone who holds the same high ideals in life and in music, give SoSaLa a listen. The music will resonate with you in a profound way.
1/4/2023
First of all I wish you all , my dear fans and supporters, a Happy New Year!
Last year was a non-exciting year for me: no gigs, no tour, no interviews, poor CD and download sales. You don’t know, how much I miss to play in front of people. I really miss my audience around the world. So, in stead of making music I made myself busy with running my non-profit musicians rights organization Musicians For Musicians, Inc – MFM. My activism kept me busy and alive.
I hope 2023 will be a better year for me and my band. A CD release called 1992 is planned for sometime this year. Waiting for the right timing to do the release. I still try to find out when and how to make this release happen. Just releasing a CD makes no sense to me and is a waste of time and money. I need a sales point or a reason to publish the CD. However, it will happen by September of next year, because I want to submit it to the Grammys.
Meanwhile I will make a video of “Omar Khayyam in NY” a 1993 track with the videographer Mark C (of LIVE SKULL) who plays also the electric guitar in 1993.
I’m also going to record a couple of jam sessions at Mark C’s recording studio with musicians I haven’t played yet. Perhaps some of the tracks are eligible for getting released.
Due to the uprisings in Iran, last year I started to reach out to Iranian musicians to inspire them to organize and act collectively for musician rights and social justice in Iran.
I hope to see you all in person soon. So please stay strong and positive in this crazy time.
I love you all.
SoSaLa
11/11/2022
“…Our vision transcends the stifling diatribes of “leaders” who care only for the sustaining and expansion of their own power. Artists and musicians have tapped into the essence of absolute reality itself, and our craft is one of the few ways to articulate this and make it manifest. Music is the doorway between worlds, and we are the gatekeepers. We touch people’s hearts and souls in a way they can neither achieve nor comprehend.”SoSaLa’s first home country IRAN has been uprising for more than 6 weeks.
10/14/2022
Announcement
“A vital journalist specializing in the Scottish music scene, with a particular affinity for jazz and new music,” Scottish Jazz advocate and drummer Fiona Mactaggart became SoSaLa’s representative for the UK and Scotland.
For any UK related inquiries, please contact her by email: [email protected]
10/10/2022
LET’S CARE FOR AMERICAN JAZZ MUSICIANS! America’s Voice Demands Social Justice! In solidarity and Music.
9/26/2022
Listen here:
8/20/2022
Support All Music Makers on Capitol Hill
At the 20th GRAMMYs on the Hill, the Recording Academy and its members are fighting for all music makers and advancing creators’ rights on Capitol Hill. Join us in telling Congress to stand up for artists, songwriters, and studio professionals by:
- Passing the HITS Act
- Advancing the American Music Fairness Act
- Ensuring fair compensation for all songwriters
Now, more than ever, we need Congress’s support. Take action to urge your lawmakers in Washington to build a better world for music and its makers.
7/22/22
I’m the proud President of the musicians rights organization MFM. It’s a hot and humid summer here in NY. The right time to purchase a MFM t-shirt. Please support my music activism purchasing a MFM t-shirt here: https://musiciansformusicians.org/product-category/t-shirts/
6/29/2022
SoSaLa joined two musicians rights organizations:
Independent Musicians Alliance (IMA) and the Recording Academy (Grammys).
6/20/2022
We’re getting closer to the new CD SoSaLa 1993 release. Adam Reifsteck has started to master the “NO WAVE’ tracks. Featuring NY musicians guitarist Mark C of Live Skull, sax player Peter Gordon (LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA), bassist David Motamed (CELL/DAS DAMEN), a.o.. Recorded and mixed by Martin Bisi at BISI STUDIOS in Brooklyn, in 1993.
5/30/2022
Good to see fans wearing the SoSaLa t-shirt in public. This time it’s Chris Coluzzi, a passionate punk, heavy metal, indie rock drummer and Elvin Jones student, who took a walk with SoSaLa in Riverside Park, New York. Do you like the t-shirt? If yes, order and purchase the t-shirt here: https://sohrab.info/merchandise/
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SoSaLa on air January 13, 2022…Maker Parker Radio show “Just Jazz After Dark” w. host John Pietaro.
Track: Enough Is Enough
Stream here:
SoSaLa Nu World Trashed CD (Limited Edition) Out NOW!!
BUY Domestic (US): https://doobeedoobizllc.thrivecart.com/nuworldtrashed/
BUY International (from Amazon US): https://www.amazon.com/s?k=SoSaLa+CD&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
Press Release here: https://sohrab.info/press-2/
Nu World Trashed Recent CD Reviews
“Overall, the saxophonist jubilantly radiates a third- world spirit, brimming with urban soundscapes.” – Glenn Astarita (ALL ABOUT JAZZ)
(NEW) ALL ABOUT JAZZ (NY) CD review – 9/9/2021 by Glenn Astarita: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/nu-world-trashed-so-sa-la-doo-bee-doo-records
Jazzwise (UK) CD on-line review (May 2021 edition)
Lucid Culture/ New York Music Daily CD review – 2/22/2021: https://newyorkmusicdaily.wordpress.com/2021/02/22/sosola/
London Jazz News (UK) CD review – 2/15/2021 by Fiona MacTaggart: https://londonjazznews.com/2021/02/15/sosala-nu-world-trashed/
DooBeeDooBeeDoo NY CD review – 12/19/2020 by Dawoud Kringle: https://doobeedoobeedoo.info/2020/12/19/cd-review-sosala-nu-world-trashed/
MFM SPEAKS OUT Podcast Interview
NYS Music Interview by Sal Cataldi (11/5/2020)
“Musicians For Musicians Founder Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi is the personification of the activist-musician. He’s got the high-energy, super creative foreign import that keeps New York City’s melting pot, eternally percolating.” – Sal Cataldi
Interview: Musicians For Musicians Founder Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
About SoSaLa
” I went to see the musician, Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi a few nights ago, and I must say,
that I was totally impressed by his honesty and sincerity. That’s perhaps one of the things that is missing in many practitioners of the music. It was quite refreshing to experience his concert presentation.
PS. It is sometimes good to get “outside of oneself” and see what someone else may be experiencing about his music.” – Legendary jazz man Billy Harper (January 9th, 2018)
SoSaLa is a proud musician. He’s passionate about music and cares for musicians and their social-political issues.
On and off stage SoSaLa advocates that music is not free! It has value. Good quality music is produced by hard work. Musicians need to get compensated for their work, because music is “work” and goes hand in hand with business.
Since 1979 SoSaLa has been on the bandwagon. Releasing a couple of LPs, CDs and music videos. Touring Japan, Europe, the US and Hong Kong. He knows the world and experienced the power of music many times in his long career.
For almost four decades he’s been polishing his craft and sound. Sohrab’s sax sounds like nobody else’s. His sound touches people’s hearts around the world. He’s not only an original player and composer, but also a great entertainer on stage. He interacts smoothly with his audience and let them even participate in his concert.
This is how SoSaLa and his band SADATO GROUP sounded in 1984….
Here is how SoSaLa sounds now with his music project SoSaLa in 2018: https://sohrab.info/SoSaLa
A SoSaLa concert review:
…This was chamber music, infused with subtle elements of performance art. Yet, it would have worked just as well in a large venue. Each musician brought their own strengths to the mix: Saadat constantly moving forward with his unique vision, Belmont adding depths of familiar yet unexpected colors and textures, Haghtalab bringing his sublime musical poetry, and Baba Don with his authoritative presence and worldly wise manner.The purpose was to create an inner experience for the audience, a musical excursion in the places where cultures overlap, and new emotions are felt. And the concert was a success. The audience went away knowing they’d bore witness to a rare and beautiful event. – By Dawoud Kringle (DooBeeDooBeeDoo NY, Jauary 19, 2018)
NU WORLD TRASH CD Reviews…
Freedom, as in civil liberties and free jazz, is the word that best captures “Nu World Trash,” the irrepressible debut by SoSaLa, the intercontinental collective led by Iranian saxophonist and activist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi. Boasting a formidable musical résumé, Ladjevardi has worked with everyone from Malian pop star Salif Keita to Ornette Coleman and Bachir Attar of Morocco’s Master Musicians of Jajouka. – By Bill Friskics-Warren (The Washington Post, March 12, 2012)
Ladjevardi merges his inward-looking persona with the jazz vernacular and a world music vibe. He chants and hollers when getting his point across, relating to a thematic forum where he scrutinizes his Iranian roots. – By Glenn Astarita (all about jazz, April 18, 2012)
