Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Hamid Dabashi: a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, writes frequently on politics and world affairs. This time in CNN Opinion.

This article is very well formulated. He writes: Obama must stick to his vow to “bear witness” to crackdown in Iran,  U.S. civil rights icons, Muslim leaders; human rights groups should go to Iran.

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Artist: EarthRise SoundSystem
Title: The Yoga Sessions
Label: White Swan Records
Cat.#: WS 0014
Release date: 1/1/2010
Genre: Electronic Yoga music/Club

Reviewed by Jim Hoey

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Text by LEMUR director Eric Singer

After more than a year of work and collaboration, I am extremely excited to tell you about the Orchestrion Project. In 2007, 17-time Grammy-winning jazz artist Pat Metheny came to LEMUR with the idea to produce an album and tour backed entirely by robotic musical instruments. This led to a year-long project where we produced an orchestra of nearly 40 robotic instruments, including GuitarBots, mallet instruments and a large array of percussion. These instruments, augmented with several instruments by other roboticists, comprise the Orchestrion, a robotic orchestra entirely under Pat’s compositional and improvisational control.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Here is a YouTube video of an audio recording of the Ornette Coleman Quartet (with Dewey Redman on tenor, Charlie Haden on bass and Ed Blackwell on drums), recorded in Belgrade, November 2, 1971. They are playing the song Who do you work for?
Unfortunately this is just an audio recording. But the music is so strong that you can imagine the players.

I love Dewey Redman‘s sax playing. And it is a shame I have never had the chance to see him playing live. He is exceptional. And he has a great tone. Nobody sounds like him. No other tenor player could take his place in Ornette’s band. After more than ten months rehearsing with Ornette I started to understand why.

Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa and later in the US by Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history.

More about Violetta Parra.

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Text by WHERE IS MY VOTE – NY

Hello all.  This is the first of a new series of news updates brought to you by Where Is My Vote-NY.  These updates are designed to summarizes recent events inside and outside Iran and keep us all better informed.

NEWS:

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Date: Sunday, December 27, 2009

Time: 7:00pm – PM 11:55

Location: Knitting Factory – Brooklyn (361 Metropolitan Ave)

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

When James Brown died almost exactly two years ago, I still lived in Tokyo, Japan. His death was a shock for me because he was one of the few musicians I loved to play with.

Other musicians were Elvin Jones (John Coltrane’s drummer) whom I met in Tokyo where he invited me and my sax to his birthday party at BB KING’s. However, due to my mother’s illness, I was unable to attend. The next year, Jones left the world unexpectedly.

Another musician I wanted to meet and play with was the Malian “desert” blues guitarist Ali Farka Toure. I missed my chance to meet him in Mali in 2004, when Salif Keita invited me to appear with him at a concert – commemorating his appointment as UN ambassador for Culture and Sport. Unfortunately, I was so busy with Keita that I had no time to make the trip to see Ali Farka Toure in Timbuktu. Two years later he died too – in the same year as James Brown.

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Underground comix icon Robert Crumb paints the Bible in a new light with his illustrated version of the entire book of Genesis.

Sex, scandal, and subtle satire abound, but with each carefully rendered detail — and the inclusion of every word from the five opening chapters — Crumb has given a new frame to one of the most widely known stories in history. Sure, he’s been under fire since the book’s release, but when has Crumb not been under fire for something or other?

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Date: Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Time: 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Brecht Forum (451 West St. between Bank & Bethune, New York, NY 10014-2041, 212- 242-4201)
Ticket: $10.00

Members:
Dawoud on sitar

Guests:
Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi (tenor sax)
Ravish Momin (percussion / laptop)
and others

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