Special Review: “Nu World Trash” Review by Scottish Jazz Space (UK) – 02/08/2020
Reviews
Kodoom, Concert Preview 02/22/12 go there
Caller.com, Album mention 02/17/12 go there
Inside World Music, Album review 02/23/12 >> go there
Art & Culture Maven, Album Mention 03/01/12 >>go there
A Voice to Hear, Album Mention 03/12/12 >>go there
Backata.com, Artist Mention 03/12/12 >> go there
Lucid Culture, Album Review 03/08/12 >> go there GREAT REVIEW Washington Post, Album Review 03/12/12 >>go there GREAT REVIEW! Financial Times, Album Review 03/22/12 >>go there or read here:
https://www.ft.com/content/4923dd24-6670-11e1-979e- 00144feabdc0 By David Honigmann / FINANCIAL TIMES SoSaLa: Nu World Trash ***** Album dedicated to the New Iran has a wide range of influences ranging from Flamenco to free jazz ranting SoSaLa is Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, an Iranian saxophonist in exile in New York, collaborator with Ornette Coleman, Salif Keita and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. His album is dedicated to the New Iran – the third track is an explicit welcome – and nods to traditional Iranian song on ‘Khorasan’. But the influences run wider, with ingredients from Flamenco to Japanese balladry to free jazz ranting. SoSaLa Nu World Trash (DooBeeDoo)
DooBeeDooBeeDoo, Concert Mention 03/04/12 >> go there
DooBeeDooBeeDoo, Album Review 01/12/12 >>go there GREAT REVIEW!
15 Minutes Magazine, CD Review 04/04/12 >>go there J&R Music Magazine, Album Review 04/01/12 >> read article
All About Jazz, Track Review 04/18/12 >>go there GREAT REVIEW!
Chimes, Album Review 04/27/12 >>go there
Quotes
“Sohrab’s sound on the saxophone is refreshing and unique, at once sweet and untamed. But even more impressive is the unique group sound that Sohrab has been able to create with his fellow musicians. They create a unified and complex sound together, full of counterpoint and changing textures, as opposed to keeping the spotlight only on the leader’s performance. This maturity in the music is very fitting for an album that also carries a very heartfelt social message.” (Oran Etkin, musician, Jan 28, 2012)
“SoSaLa Nu World Trash by Sohrab Saadat is a powerful album that inspires freedom. Sohrab’s innovative way to fuse Persian and Jajouka music with free jazz gives a new meaning to that category.” (Elio Villafranca, musician, Jan 4, 2012)
“SoSaLa has an expansive sound imbued with a spirit of discovery that harkens back to a time, in the 1980s, when the east village music scene was at its most creative – and combines this atmosphere with a very contemporary vibe and an awareness of the terrible political situation in Iran, which can, perhaps, only be resolved by a belief in the justice of beauty, love, and music.” (Lukas Ligeti, musician, Dec 25, 2011)
“This is a beautiful and human song, man! I like it very much. This song is a mix and fusion of Persian and JaJouka music. It describes musically very well the long historic trip Persian music and culture had to go to reach JaJouka. – When I come to NY next time let’s play Persian-JaJouka music. And please take me to Iran with you.” (The Master Musicians of JaJouka’s Bachir Attar’s quote reg. “Ja-Jou-Ka,” October 2011)
SoSaLa is mythic and primal, yet has a modern, acidic quality. It’s fuses jazz with a slow punk, and occasionally shocks with Iranian electrodes. But always, expertly tongue in cheek. His music strikes the right balance of what Werner Herzog calls, “ecstatic truth.It reminds me of that great actor Klaus Kinski. You can’t tell if it’s serious, but you love it anyway because the melodrama is well executed. (Mustafa Nuri Sakarya/The Daily Dream, May 21, 2013)
I finally got a chance to listen to your album today. I have to say that my favorite track is Welcome New Iran. It embraces so many different genres from the world vibe to the grungy punk vibe. And I love the crowd samples, it gives it a feel of chaos and change. (Chris Pummill, recording engineer, February 12, 2013)
Wow, absolutely great stuff. Nu World Trash was like a wild ride through the back roads of Baghdad and the Lower East Side all at once. Each piece was compelling and the instrumental interplay was great. As a percussionist, this really worked for me, as you can imagine, and I can hear all of these global hand drums ringing out. But it wasn’t just that: really nice horns and your tenor is often a primal scream. Love the vocals too—some of it sounded like improvised spoken word, flying over the beats. I read over the credits and saw some familiar names, not only Damon but also Sylvain, whom I work with regularly in Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra. And Satish was referred to me by Fred Ho years ago and I think we exchanged phone calls but that’s about it. But these guys, all of it, sounded so interconnected, so intense. Wonderful album overall. (John Pietaro, musician and music activist, February 7, 2013)
“John Lurie meets Jah Wobble in a psychedelic film noir set in revolutionary Iran” (Don Chow, Chines Canadian producer and dj, November 10, 2012)
Nu World Trash gets in deep, propelling Persian musical motifs headfirst into the midst of the wildest free jazz experimentation. A timely soundtrack to the rapid global developments of today, and the further changes the world demands.” (Jeff Hammond, A & R for Tokyo-based Play Label and producer, October 8, 2012)
“I was very fond of Happy April Fool’s Day. I felt the gypsy in all songs. It is in the sense of freedom. I can not speak in English, and more than that it is a musical, I felt natural. In the sense of my Japanese, I felt the most in a “Sad Sake”. Silence and blues.
It is a completely different story, I like the beat of the machine. Drum machine. Because it will not fit the man. Like nature. The runaway and machine. It is thrilling. Saadat san’s songs have been played on a drum machine. I have a little imagination.” (Kiyoto Yoshihara of Kinsâme , Japanese musician, September 7, 2012)
“Hi Sohrab, i heard your cd, very cool, i loved it, unfortunately though, i got to tell you i can’t be part of your band, since i have no time for mine already…” (Ibrahim Maalouf, French Lebanese musician, June 27, 2012)
” Salam Sohrab, here is my quote about your CD. Hope you like it. Satoshi joined to listened and did quote together, too. I felt a very strong sense of ” message” listening to Sohrab Saadat Ladievardi’s music. A message about people uniting and the need for unification of the world. Sound of middle east, Africa, and Asia are surprisingly fused together, as if they all come from the same source. The voices are haunting and adds a little bit of pain of this human process.
Sohrab Saadat Ladievardiの音楽を聴いたあと私はとても強いメッセージを聞いた感じがした。 人類の共和とその必要性についてのメッセージ。 中近東、アフリカやアジアの音がまるで同じ源から湧き出たように驚くほど溶け込んでいる。 そのボイスは取り憑かれた様でここに人間としてのプロセスとしての痛みも感じる。” (Shoko Nagai & Satoshi Takeishi, Japanese musicians, June 3, 2012)
“I am honored to be part of Sohrab Saadat’s new release, Nu World Trash. He brings together disparate elements and integrates them in a compelling sound that is burning with actuality. (Sylvain Leroux, Canadian musician, May 3, 2012)”
“Saadat, whose work I have followed (and once was lucky to participate in) for many years, has hidden somewhere inside him a never ending source of creativity.” (Torsten Rasch, German composer, April 26, 2012)
“Jazz is a music of freedom and passion. Those days we need it more than ever, and that’s why in my opinion Saadat’s new album is so important. He is our Persian messenger of musical freedom. And one more – he proves that music is the main gate to the kingdom of peace.” (Wojtek Krzak, Polish musician, Mar 14, 2012)
“When I was teenager I used to rob a part of time at the back of ” Le grand théatre” d’Angers my native town in France. Wonderful artists from USA came there: Art ensemble of Chicago, John Lurie, Don Cherry, John Abercrombie etc. This CD of Sohrab remind me these moments of intense discovery, this specific inheritance of jazz music, transmission. Not only music but trace of history, a way to open the world. This is sound of a legendary city, impact of urban disorder and harmony in a surrealist blend with the resonance of a distant Orient.” (Denis Péan de Lo’Jo, French musician, Mar 2, 2012)
“SO SA LA [SOHRAB SAADAT LADJEVARDI et al] – Nu World Trash (DooBeeDooBeeDoo 01; USA) Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi on tenor sax & vocals, Alejandro Castellano & Ladell McLin on guitars, Kurt Dahlke on electronics, Indofunk Satish on electric trumpet, Sylvain Leroux on fula flute & tambin, Mar Gueye on sabar, Derek Nievergelt & Damon Banks on basses, Piruz Parlow on electric tar, Massamba Diop on talking drum and Swiss Chris on drums. Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi is originally from Iran, has lived in Germany & Japan and is currently living here. He left us with this disc which includes only two musicians I knew of previously, French flutist Sylvain Leroux who played here at DMG a few weeks ago and drummer Swiss Chris who also plays with Burnt Sugar. “Ja-Jou-Ka” kicks off with a great swirling Moroccan groove with the tenor sax and electric trumpet circling around one another in a most hypnotic way. Saadat mentions Bachir Attar from the Master Musicians of Jajouka as he shouts joyously emitting strong vibes. The music blends many elements from different cultures and time frames: funk, rock, jazz & ethnic sounds, electric & acoustic instruments, all swirling around one another in a most mesmerizing way. Sohrab does more spoken word than singing, spewing out his views to bring the world closer together. The festive spirit of the music is often infectious although I do get a bit weary of the shouted voice at times. I can agree with his view of our splintered world by trying to pull different threads together into a hopeful mosaic. Some of the melodies remind me of the Jewish prayers heard in my youth but perhaps these melodies are universal in nature and shared by numerous cultures. You can visit Saadat’s website at www.sohrab.info and learn about the real Iran which you won’t find out about in the controlled news of the world. A toast to a New Iran. (Bruce Lee Gallanter, NY’s Downtown Music Gallery co-owner, Feb 24, 2012)
“Reading like a collage of sound plastered and spliced with social commentary, Sohrab Saadat’s New World Trash has a downtown punk attitude with echoes of his own Persian roots layered in the very free and open free jazz landscape that his collective ensemble creates. It has a distinctly urban feel and is a great listen on multiple levels.” (Brandon Terzic, US musician, Feb 17, 2012)
“Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi takes up the energy and the atmosphere of Jazz legends like Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler. And finally he breaks out in a new direction that is strongly rooted in the cultural context of our present time. “Nu World Trash” is an impressive piece of music and it s highly recommended to anyone who is keen on Today´s Jazz Music” (Sven Kacirek , German musician, Feb 16, 2012)
“The world need to hear this music and message for progress and change. It is a new type of evolution , your message is the truth, your music is freedom to me.” (Jojo Kuo of Jojokuo’s Afrobeat Collective, Nigerian musician, Feb 13, 2012)
“As I write this, I just finished listening to “Nu World Trash.” In the last hour or so, there were many times I stopped what I was doing, looked at my sound system, and said “Damn!” Sohrab’s work is brilliant, incendiary, and evokes a timeless passion distilled into this very moment of time.” (Dawoud Kringle , musician, Feb 2, 2012)
“Sohrab’s sound on the saxophone is refreshing and unique, at once sweet and untamed. But even more impressive is the unique group sound that Sohrab has been able to create with his fellow musicians. They create a unified and complex sound together, full of counterpoint and changing textures, as opposed to keeping the spotlight only on the leader’s performance. This maturity in the music is very fitting for an album that also carries a very heartfelt social message.” (Oran Etkin, US musician, Jan 28, 2012)
“Alone I am nothing, but together we are winners!” bellows Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi in his song Welcome New Iran. It is just one of the boiling points of his sizzling hot new record Nu World Trash. A production that has REVOLUTION written all over it. Surrounded by an incredibly gifted group of musicians, Sohrab has provided himself with a platform from which he expresses his views, both musically and socially, in the most unrestrained fashion. This is the kind of record that makes you want to listen to again and again. Sohrab’s compositions are richly layered and the musical surprises are countless, they just keep popping up, giving the songs more depth with every listen. With words and sounds this radical Sohrab definitely kisses away all chances of ever going on a hot date with the Ayatollah’s daughter in funky Teheran. But he doesn’t have to. On Nu World Trash Sohrab has created a new world entirely his own, sparkling with passion, danger and adventure. A welcome oasis for the weary Downtown traveler. “Together we are powerful!” Sohrab tells us once more. Just so we know his revolution is far from over. If Che Guevara had made a record, this is would be it.” (Pascal Plantinga, Dutch musician, Jan25, 2012)
“Gorgeous and achingly beautiful, Sohrab Saadat’s SoSaLa ensemble bleeds passionately with every twist of Nu World Trash. Only an Iranian living in NYC and worshipping at the collective alter of Coltrane and Fela Kuti could contrive such sincere expressiveness and breathe fresh life into the hybridization of avant-jazz and middle eastern music.” (Philo T., Illegal Art label owner, Jan 23, 2012)
“I dig your CD, though I feel like I need more time with it to get to the heart of what’s happening with the poetry. I really like the big sprawling sound the get from the band. It feels like a nice step further into the sonic realm of the classic 60’s jazz sound I love so much.” (Skye Steele, musician, Jan 18, 2011)
“Sohrab Ladjevardi has a massive tone on tenor sax, and his musical adventures expand the mind and the soul!” (Amy Denio, musician, Jan 16, 2012)
“Sohrab Saadat’s CD, SoSaLa, is a projection of pure sarcasm and wit towards the world’s regimes to the everyday “daily grind,” tangled up with wild swells of Saadat’s virtuosic Middle-Eastern-infused saxophone, and pushed by persistent, rockified drum set and bass. Saadat’s almost whimsical commentary traversing the album is a fresh and welcomed poke at political absurdity and cultural confusion, housed in a musical atmosphere deriving influences from America to Saadat’s native Tehran, Iran. (April Centrone of the New York Arabic Orchestra, US musician, Jan 15, 2012)
“SoSaLa Nu World Trash by Sohrab Saadat is a powerful album that inspire freedom. Sohrab’s innovative way to fuse Persian and Jajouka music with free jazz gives a new meaning to that categoric.” (Elio Villafranca, Cuban musician, Jan 4, 2012)
“SoSaLa has an expansive sound imbued with a spirit of discovery that harkens back to a time, in the 1980s, when the east village music scene was at its most creative – and combines this atmosphere with a very contemporary vibe and an awareness of the terrible political situation in Iran, which can, perhaps, only be resolved by a belief in the justice of beauty, love, and music.” (Lukas Ligeti, Austrian musician, Dec 25, 2011)
“SoSaLa’s debut album takes the gritty sound of the street and recycles it into Nu World Trash. The street may be in Tehran, Tokyo, Tangier, Bamako, or New York, but the sound is always singular. A layering of sounds, voices, and instruments, with band leader Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi’s saxophone riding the crest of the wave. His able cast of backing musicians includes Swiss Chriss on drums, Derek Nievergelt on bass, the Senegalese master Masamba Diop on talking drum, an atmospheric wall of guitar sound from Alejandro Castellano (guitar), Sylvain Leroux on fula flute, Piruz Partow on electric tar, and electric blues maestro Ladell Mclin (also on guitar). Born in Iran but raised in Germany, Sohrab Sadaat Ladjevardi has studied with Ornette Coleman, played on stage with Salif Keita in Bamako, and been a martial arts master in Japan. So it’s hardly surprising that Nu World Trash has a complexity and a rhythmic drive that defies generic pigeon holes. Co-produced by Martin Bisi, the album travels from Morocco’s Rif Mountains (“Ja-Jou-Ka”) to Iran’s Green Movement (“Welcome New Iran”), and back to the Upper West Side for a morning coffee and a bedtime beer (“Everyday Blues”). The sound of Ladjevardi’s sax takes us all those places, and far beyond, its wailing wakes us from our dream of life and rises with us to the sky …” (Augusta Palmer, US film maker, December 22, 2011)
“Sohrab Saadat’s new release Nu World Trash with his project SoSaLa proves that he is a force to be reckoned with. He speaks through his saxophone with an earthly fire that many players spend a lifetime searching for. In a world of copycats, Saadat is a true original.” (Dan Barman, US musician, Dec 21, 2011)
“Interesting sound canvas! Sounds like you put a lot of thought into it and the concept is front and center, which is a rarity these days. Wonderful players also!” (Rez Abassi, US musician, Dec 18, 2011)
“This is a beautiful and human song, man! I like it very much. This song is a mix and fusion of Persian and Jajouka music. It describes musically very well the long historic trip Persian music and culture had to go to reach Jajouka. – When I come to NY next time let’s play Persian-Jajouka music. And please take me to Iran with you.” (The Master Musicians of Jajouka’s Bachir Attar, Moroccan musician, October 2011)
Blog Reviews
Howard Mandel (Jazz Beyond Jazz ) – Happy birthday 83 — and 82 — Ornette Coleman (March 9, 2013) “…Iranian saxophonist SoSaLa (aka Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi) also gives me his CD, Nu World Trash. It’s dedicated to The New Iran and has shout outs to Sato Hironobu Sensei, Salif Keita and Ornette.”
Alan Kushan – Iranian-Kurdish santur maestro, composer, film actor, educator, music researcher – Music From Far (January 28, 2013)
Robert Ratajczak – Polish music journalist – www.longplay.blox.pl (December 21, 2012) Son Harada – owner of Tokyo’s EL SUR RECORDS (label, CD retailer & mail order) and music journalist – read review
SoSaLa recording with Pascal Plantinga (Holland)
Pascal Plantinga’s Funky Avant Angels Take a Detour (Lucid Culture – 07/10/2012)
