All posts by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Music project with Iran’s Kaveh Haghtalab performing revolutinary Iranian music!!!

Collaborations
Photo by Glenn Cornett (Spectrum)
Photo by Glenn Cornett (Spectrum)

Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi on sax and vocals will start a side project with Iran’s Kaveh Haghtalab on kamancheh. The name of the project is still t.b.a.. In fact Kaveh has been a member of SoSaLa since November 2013.And they played as a duo together for the first time at Cafe Nadery (NY), October 1, 2013. This concert was the initiator for this new project.

Here is a review and a video of this concert published in DooBeeDooBeeDoo NY (October 16, 2013): Concert Review: Kaveh Haghtalab and (guest) Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardy play the Persian blues… It was all poetry…!

Their repertoire will consist of original and arranged Persian music. With their music this duo wants to reach out to Iranian or Persian-American people who were born here and don’t know much or anything about Iran. The idea is to play music which feels new and fresh and touches people’s hearts. Their intention is to play music which expresses musically “the Iran of today or tomorrow.”

About Kaveh Haghtalab

Kaveh, an Iranian kamancheh player and drummer, born in Mashhad in 1982, but grew up in Tehran. moved to New York in March 2012. He grew up in a musical family listening to his parents playing Persian classical music. His mother taught him music from the age of 9. He started to play kamancheh when he was 11. Since the age of 14 he has been performing professionally with various music ensembles at various festivals and events in Iran. He studied under Saeed Farajpoori, Ahmad Mirhashemi, and Ostad Majid Kiani. Eventually he joined the Persian classical music ensemble “Center For Preservation And Research of Iranian Music.”

Besides playing the kamancheh Kaveh also fell in love with the Western drums. Like many of the Iranian young people he loved rock music. By the age of 23 he decided to practise the Western drums. He took drum lessons and joined later several rock and  jazz groups in Tehran. He holds a bachelor degree in computer engineering from the Azad University in Tehran. Since coming to New York he enrolled as a drum student at The Collective School of Music in Manhattan, New York.

Concert Review:…Sohrab is SoSaLa.

Concert Reviews, , ,
SoSaLa @ Dittmar Gallery, December, 5, 2013
SoSaLa @ Dittmar Gallery, December, 5, 2013

Date: Monday, December 9, 2013
Venue: Caravan (Chicago)

Concert review by August Lysy

Almost one year ago, in the crowded back room of an antique shop—amidst a mismatched assortment of chairs and odd articles—I happened upon a musical performance that for two whole hours took my breath away and held me captivated at the end of my seat. That was the night I first heard SoSaLa.

   A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure to hear SoSaLa again: the same performers, but a different space. Sohrab, of course, helmed the ensemble with his shiny, silver saxophone and passionate vocals and lyrics; Steve Marquette played electric guitar—a bluesy Jazz with a Robert Fripp twist—; Lucas Gillan dominated on percussion, playing both drums and djembe; and Alex Wing played both electric bass and oud, impressively capturing the whole range of intensity, from delicate openings and interludes to slap-bass-tic jams and solos.

   Objectively, since last year, the ensemble improved in their performing together. The ensemble developed a noticeably stronger rapport that was communicated in what I saw as an intenser and more unified performance. And not only did the members play better together, but each one improved in his respective instrument—most notably Steve Marquette, who tackled his solos with exceptional focus and vigor.

   Having thus attested to the greater harmony of the ensemble, I must confess that dissonance marked my overall experience of the performance—and for this I hold the location responsible. Unlike last year, where attentive listeners packed the performance space and a red and green rug hanging from the ceiling enveloped us all in the warm, Jazz sounds—this year crystal chandeliers, televisions, and silver ball-bearing curtains adorned the performance space. Not unlike an Eastern Orthodox Christian attending an Evangelical Sunday service, I felt the cool, modern feel of the space stifled the passion of the emotion and thus the thrall of the experience.

   But, again, I regard this as a fault of space and not any lack on the part of the musicians.

   Indeed, despite the ugly LCD glow of the television screens—or perhaps in spite of them—one could still feel the soulful movements of Sohrab’s saxophone, singing its plaintive Jazz, attesting not only to his instrumental excellence but also to the depth of his feeling. One feels this Sohrab’s genuineness of emotion even through the stereo, playing his CD: it’s in his voice and words and it’s what emanates from the horn of his saxophone. This authenticity is what drew me back a year later to hear Sohrab play again, and I believe it’s what will continue to draw people toward his unique sound. Sohrab is SoSaLa.

Previous Review

Middle-Eastern-Infuzed Free Jazz Delivers Amazing Experience by August Lysy (TECHNEWS, March 9, 2013)

Related Post

Video Report: SoSaLa 2nd Chicago 2013 Invasion From 12/5 Through 12/10/2013