Saturday, September 20, 2014
Here is a link to a Voice Of America feature of NY’s street musicians Busking in New York- Part 2 which is in Farsi.
The director is Melody Safavi (Abjeez). She features and interviews a brass band, a piano player, an official of the NY Subway, a group of subway break dancers, a violinist,…and Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi (leader of the band SoSaLa).
Melody’s coverage proved that NY’s street musicians are hard working people and are not “just” entertainers or “artists”, but WORKERS!
In this film report Sohrab is featured not just as a musician (he’s shown playing on his tenor saxophone in a tunnel), but also as a music activist who speaks about musicians’ rights.
In Farsi he explains and describes that musicians are not different from other workers. They work like anybody else and should be respected for “their work” and get paid fairly like any qualified worker.
He also explains why he calls himself an activist.
Due to this feature which went on air Saturday, September 20, 2014, Sohrab has received some positive responses from Iran.