Part of a new breed of African artists, 24 year-old Spoek Mathambo (rapper/DJ and graphic designer/illustrator) is hitting the world hard with his take on Afro-futurism. His goal of making music is to be progressive without forgetting his roots. As the front-man of the electro rap outfits SWEAT.X and PLAYDOE. Spoek Mathambo has become an increasingly prominent figure in the international music scene over the last couple of years.

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Last year, Spoek Mathambo released his solo album, Mshini Wam for BBE (BBE Records), and has built a live band with Richard The Third (producer), Jakob Snake (drummer) & Nic Van Reenen (guitarist) in order to tour the project. The release of this project was particularly exciting as a sign to the world of what (South) Africa has in store in terms of progressive electronic music.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

The Argentine-borne Israeli Daniel Barenboim is something special in the world of western classical music: he uses music as a platform to unite opposing parties. He isn’t afraid of performing or conducting aesthetically and politically controversial composers, such as Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg and others. For example in 2001 he did something unbelievable by conducting Wagner in Israel. I couldn’t believe it when I heard about it. By many Jews he was hated for that, but he didn’t care.

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He is not just a musician, conductor, educator, but also a musical activist. He has his own political views and is not afraid to express them in his music and choice of music materials. He supports the Palestinian rights and is an outspoken critic of Israel’s right wing governments. He is against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

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Text by Sara Dotes

Photo by 稲垣元則

In 2009, .es started out as contemporary multi-media music unit based at “Gallery Nomart” in Osaka, Japan. .es consists of Takayuki Hashimoto (guitar, alto saxophone and harmonica etc), Sara (piano, cajon and dance etc ) and Satoshi Hayashi, modern art director and producer of .es. Hashimoto and Sara are multi-instrumentalists and also Sara occasionally dances with Hashimoto’s sound. Their live music performances all have a different theme and they choose instruments appropriate for each theme. All of their performances are in an improvised style.

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The two members of .es (Hashimoto and Sara) came to respect and play various musical styles such as rock, punk, classical music, flamenco, and increasingly found themselves wanting to express the impulse on principles and unchangeable soul.

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(Promotional partner: Persian Arts Festival)

(photo courtesy of Persian Arts Festival)

Date: Saturday, June 4, 2011
Time: 8:00pm
Venue: Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036, 212-840-2824)
Tickets: $100, 85, 75 & 55 (Ticketmaster)

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Miles Davis declared Jazz is dead (it’s) the music of a museum. Frank Zappa said Jazz isn’t dead. It just smells funny. How about rock music?

The Guardian (UK) said in January: “It is a claim made before by, among others, Lenny Kravitz and the Swedish garage band the Hellacopters. But today, after years of struggle, came evidence to support the fearsome claim: rock’n'roll is dead.” Read more.

Anyway I don’t care whether certain music styles are dead. On the contrary, I only care about bands which play emotional and passionate music. I mean, music that really feels alive and speaks to me.

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Selected by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Singer/songwriter Tinashé who spent his childhood in his native Zimbabwe, based now in London, created in this city an uplifting, intensely personal music. His debut album, Saved. just came out. Enjoy his music!

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Musician pick up by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

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Majid Bekkas, oud and guembri or sintir virtuoso, guitar professor and singer, has long been a star in his home country Morocco. Over the last few years, he has found his way into the European jazz scene through his collaborations with Archie Shepp, Louis Sclavis, Flavio Boltro, Joachim Kuhn or Klaus Doldinger.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

I can’t remember when and how exactly I met Hubl Greiner, a German musician, composer and brain of the experimental-dada-world fusion band The Blech. But what I remember, is that when I met him for the first time  I lived in Tokyo. I was a musician myself and earned my living teaching English and German and writing as a freelance music journalist for Japanese music journals.

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