SoSaLa played at following venues:
1. Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center, Saturday, November 16, 9pm
2. Checkpoint Charlie, Sunday, November 17 @ Acoustic Open Mic with Jim Smith (they were supposed to play at Big Box which unfortunately closed the night before)
3. Open Ears Music @ The Blue Nile, November 19, 10pm
The members were: Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi on sax and vocals, Marcello Benetti on drums, Joe Cabral on electric bass and Chris Alford on electric guitar. Guest appearances @ Blue Nile by Martin Krusche (soprano sax) and Rob Wagner (tenor sax).
All shows went fine… All the musicians gave their best… All audiences of the three shows enjoyed the music (except of one Iranian guy at Blue Nile who couldn’t accept my interpretation of the deaths of four Iranian musicians – members of the Yellow Dogs – in New York’s Williamsburg, November 11th. He yelled at Sohrab and left the venue furiously.) After the shows CDs and the new SoSaLa t-shirt sold very well.
Sohrab was invited by WTUL New Orleans 91.5 FM‘s DJ Ruby for an interview, November 17. He talked about his album, his activism, his mentor Ornette Coleman and performed live on tenor sax “Welcome New Iran.” Please listen to the edited interview here: http://www.mixcloud.com/DJ_RUBY/souljazz-expresssosala-in-studio-interview/
Videos from the Zeitgeist show
Two unexpected incidents happened at the Blue Nile show:
#1 In the beginning of “Sad Sake ” Sohrab’s sax suddenly didn’t make any sound after inviting Martin Krusche on stage. He tried to fix this problem while the band was playing but in vain. He signed to his guitar player, Chris, to play a longer solo and gave his sax to Martin who’s also Sohrab’s sax repair man to fix it. Luckily he could do that, he saved Sohrab from a tragedy. Sohrab thanked him with a big hug. Until this day Sohrab can’t forget this night. Have you ever heard of an incident like this? Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
#2 When Sohrab started to talk about the killings of three Iranian rock musicians – members of the indie rock band the Yellow Dogs – in East Williamsburg, an Iranian in the audience freaked out and yelled at Sohrab: ” How can you say that this incident has something to do with Iran and make Iranians responsible for this?” Then he threw the SoSaLa CD and the t-shirt, which he purchased before the show, on stage and left the club. Sohrab tried to stop him from stage and shouted: “Hey, let’s talk about it.” But the Iranian ignored Sohrab and rushed out of the club. The audience was irritated by this incident and couldn’t understand what was happening between Sohrab and the Iranian guy. Sohrab used this happening as a chance to explain the audience what has been going wrong in Iran and between Iranians for the last 35 years since the beginning of the Iranain revolution.
Videos from the Blue Nile show
Sohrab interviewed by WTUL 91.5 FM radio interview, November 17, 2013
ABOUT THE LAST INVASION
Video Report: SoSaLa’s New Orleans invasion from 12/7 through 12/11/2012