Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

One important activity in life is to interact with people around you. Every day you meet people here and there. If you like them and care for them, they become friends later. Or the other extreme way…they could become enemies. Music, which is an element and part of life, is also about interaction. Such as the interaction between a musician and his audience, between a composer and the orchestra performing his composition, between musicians and musicians of the same group.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Yea Big + Kid Static (courtesy of Stefen Robinson)

For a couple of weeks I have been contacting all kinds of websites and blogs to exchange links. One of them was Just-Aesthetics which is run by Stefen Robinson. Through the process of exchanging links we got to know each other. I found out that he, like me, is a musician, a human being aware of life in general and of the people around him. He isn’t afraid to take over responsibilities and wants to be a positive force for his community. Inshallah!

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1. Avram’s Electric Kool-Aid

Date: Monday, August 9, 2010
Time: 11pm
Venue: Nublu (62 Avenue C, East Village, New York, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Jazz?Funk

Avram’s Electric Kool-Aid is playing his original compositions, with improvisations by some of NYC’s most creative groove players. The music has a variety of influences, including Ornette Coleman’s Primetime, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Moroccan Gnawa music, and Stanley Turrentine. The members are: Avram Fefer (sax), Aaron Whitbey (key), Dave Phelps (gui) and  Chris Eddleton (dr).

2. TERANGA

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About this documentary film

Abyaneh is a historical and ancient village in Iran where time has stood still and its people are as old as the place itself.
Two years ago, filmmaker Zohreh Shayesteh visited the village and took pictures of its women. She returned in 2006 with a video camera. While searching for the women in the photos she met Keshvar, a blunt and feisty woman who became the physical and spiritual guide for the filmmaker in this journey of self-discovery. Thanks to Keshvar and the unexpected friendship that developed between these two women, what was to be a simple video documentary about a village and its people becomes a spiritual journey to a place the filmmaker once called home.

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Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010
Time: 8pm
Venue: Zora Art Space (315 4th Avenue between 3rd and 2nd streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn)
Ticket: t.b.a.

Mai La Thai is an art director and filmmaker based in New York City. She has received numerous international awards in different disciplines throughout her career. The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences recognized her twice for her online short films. The film “Goal” was commissioned by Nike in 2006 for the World Cup and was subsequently featured in Shots UK. She received a second nod from the Academy in 2010 for “A Toast to Memo.” La Thai creates bodies of work influenced by her upbringing.

Film Title: BOAT NO. _ _ -_ _ _ _ are we there yet?

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Photo by Edvard Vlanders

Yes……..No………..?

Jazz pianist Matthew Shipp, who after moving to New York in 1984 quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. discusses the world of Jazz and his work with Dusty from Culture Catch. In this video he is performing Matmos.

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2 Films by Hisham Mayet (owner of  Sublime Frequencies Rec): “folk cinema,”  whose aim is to capture the personal essence and rituals of cultures, from the Bori cult dance ceremony to the ancient mystical gatherings formed around centuries-old Moroccan trade caravans.

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Date: June 27, 2010
Venue: Issue Project Room (NY, Brooklyn)

Syria‘s Omar Souleyman is a musician who began his career in 1994. He has been working with a number of musicians with whom he still performs. Under his name they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live- recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. His music has reached a wider audience in recent years due to the American label Sublime Frequencies, from which he has been able to tour extensively and release three records. DBDBD is going to write about this musician in the near future.

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Date: June 13, 2010
Venue: Highline Ballroom (NY)

Text by Sohrab Saadt Ladjevardi and Jim Hoey

Rachid Taha rolls his rrrrrrr’s, and lets his husky sound build song after song, crescendoing to climax, and the effect of him and his band recently at the Highline Ballroom show was one of exultation, celebration, rebelliousness, and ultimately, exchange. He’s an Algerian from a small village in North Africa, but was raised in his adolescence in France under discriminatory conditions, influenced by Arabic traditions and the best of Western music like Zeppelin and the Clash that floated in and out of Paris in the early ’80′s, when he was trudging away in a factory and first forming his own band and running a nightclub called “Les Refoules” (The Rejects).

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1. SPANGLISH FLY

Date: Monday 2, August 4, 2010
Time: 9;30pm
Venue: Barbes (376 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Boogaloo, Latin Swing and Shingaling

SPANGLISH FLY. Every Monday in August.
The sounds of 1960′s Spanish Harlem. With Atsushi Tsumura, trumpet; Charly Rodriguez, timbales; Christelle Durandy, percussion; Dmitri Moderbacher, bass; Erica Ramos, lead vocals; Gabo Tomasini, percussion; Jonathan Flothow, bari sax; Jonathan Goldman a/k/a Jonny Semi-Colón, trumpet; Martin Wallace, piano; Mick Santurio, congas; Rose Imperato, tenor sax; Sebastian Isler, trombone. “What Sharon Jones did for oldschool soul, what Antibalas did for Afrobeat and what Chicha Libre is doing for chicha, Spanglish Fly is doing for bugalu. . As dance music, it’s irresistible.” — Lucid Culture

2. Natacha Atlas

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