“CD Review: SoSaLa “1993” – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ...Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi – a.k.a. SoSaLa – is a unique musician. As a saxophonist, founder and leader of the ensemble SoSaLa, publisher, founder and president of Musicians For Musicians (MFM), Kendo master, and producer, he has an impressive resume. This is a golden opportunity to look into the man’s musical past, and gain a valuable perspective on his present and future.... The album features SoSaLa on soprano saxophone, organ, flute, and vocals. It’s interesting to note that he did not play tenor saxophone on this recording, and this is the only recording of him playing organ....This collection is essential for any admirer of SoSaLa. It conveys and embodies a perfect balance between the seasoning of aged experience and the restless energy and rage of youth. The music is as fresh and innovative now as it was when it was recorded 30 years ago.”

“1/10/2023 "Liking Your Music" My name is Dawoud Kringle (a.k.a. Dawoud the Renegade Sufi). I’m a musician, writer, artist, and whatever else I can get away with. I have known Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi (a.k.a.SoSaLa) for a long time. We have played music together and shared many experiences and adventures together. In fact, I was with him when he was still formulating the concept of Musicians For Musicians. One relevant incident stands out in my memory. At one point during one of his performances some years ago, he played something that was truly beautiful and transcendental. It was a moment where he exceeded his own abilities. I looked at him amazed while the ghosts of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane nodded in approval. The first thing you must realize about Sohrab is that he is an original. I can think of no one who plays like him. His combination of influences and musical and cultural roots produced something that....... Continue reading here: https://sohrab.info/”

“A quote from the SoSaLa "Nu World Trashed" CD review. “Overall, the saxophonist jubilantly radiates a third- world spirit, brimming with urban soundscapes.” – Glenn Astarita (ALL ABOUT JAZZ)”

“SoSaLa is the nom de guerre of Swiss-born Iranian American saxophonist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, who counts Ornette Coleman, the Master Musicians of Jajouka and Malian singer Salif Keita among his previous collaborators...Most of the tracks here find his warmly melancholic tone backed by distinctly flimsy electronic beats such as might ooze easily from an iffy beach bar somewhere in the tropics. “Enough Is Enough” attempts to up the urgency with a spoken cameo appearance from philosopher, critic and activist Dr. Cornel West, who delivers an excited if somewhat inscrutable sermon that seems to berate “vampire capitalists” while exhorting musicians to “organise”. West may be a stirring orator but Amiri Baraka he ain't. SoSaLa finds himself in much more convincing territory on three longer tracks that ditch the electronics in favour of meditative, raga-like atmospherics, blowing a sinuous soprano backed by dobro, bowed Persian kamancheh and Hungarian cimbalom.”

“But, damn, the world is on the brink of a seismic shift, and this guy is ready!. If jazz, psychedelia, Middle Eastern or Ethiopian music are your jams. crank this often starkly beautiful album. Fans of great Levantine reedmen from Daro Behroozi to Hafez Modirzadeh are especially encouraged to check it out.”

“Nu World Trashed is an improvising jazz-world music album as well as a voice of protest against some elements of modern life. An example of the latter is the ‘Nu World’ of the album title, meaning the present-day world as impacted by the internet, and how we can feel ‘trashed’ by it. The musician behind this no holds barred, verging-on concept album, is New York-based tenor saxophonist, vocalist, music activist and, I would argue, colourful performance artist SoSaLa (Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi)...Nu World Trashed’s nine tracks take a previous album, Nu World Trash from 2011, as the starting point. Most compositions are by SoSaLa himself, except for electronics-heavy tracks where the credits are shared with Germany-based Hubl Greiner and Paul Amrod (track 1) and Genetic Drugs (tracks 3, 5 and 8). Their contributions inject a modern, urban European feel...Throughout Nu World Trashed there is a strong sense of improvisation, of a global outlook and of friends moved by the same in”

“Like a martial arts master (SoSaLa holds a 6th Dan in Kendo), his style is both unique without excessive flourishes, and confident without arrogance. Every phrase and every note reveals the heart of a warrior and the soul of a poet. It’s not difficult to imagine his late mentor Ornette Coleman listening from a place we cannot see, nodding in approval.”

“Middle-Eastern-Infuzed Free Jazz Delivers Amazing Experience - ...That being said, this past Friday night I had the pleasure to see SoSaLa at Surplus of Options, an independent antiques, furniture, and obscure art and objects buyer, seller and trader up on Lincoln Avenue. Initially, after reading the description of the band and considering the obscurity of the locale, I expected an amateur, indie effort—akin, perhaps, to a performance I once saw in a basement in which the “artist” periodically sipped wine from a bottle and put a microphone in his mouth to simulate a-melodic electronic crackles. Nevertheless, I went because I wanted to explore music in the city and hopefully make some contacts for my radio show. To my totally-unexpected amazement, what I experienced in the intimate back-room space of that building so surprised and overwhelmed me; I can hardly find the words to describe the experience: my mouth hung open in a bemused smile for the whole first set, and I entered..”

“SoSaLa: A Young Band Whose Sound Still Has Great Potential To Grow And Develop… - Last Thursday night I made my way across the Williamsburg Bridge to check out SoSaLa – a band lead by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi. The show was interesting for a number of reasons the first of which I shall point out being that the band is comprised of a unique arrangement of instruments. Sohrab, the leader and front man of SoSaLa plays the saxophone accompanied by Michael Wimberly on drums and djembe, Dave Ross on guitar, John Pietaro on vibraphone and Bradely Madsen on trombone, and at times Jeremy Danneman on clarinet as well. As the preceding list indicates, SoSala, is without a bass player. Although this, as I understand is not a stylistic choice, and rather a matter of circumstance, it certainly pushes the band’s sound in a certain direction. To put it bluntly, SoSala is missing out on some low end frequencies. In lieu of no bass player, it appeared as though the trombone player, with the aid of”

“SoSaLa: Nu World Trash (2012) - SoSaLa is the brainchild of vocalist, saxophonist, music activist and native Iranian Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, who fuses Persian influences with Western instrumentation amid indigenous platforms, summoning the Middle Eastern contingent. A well-travelled musician, Ladjevardi immerses his craft into quite a few projects and multifaceted ensemble-based frameworks. He resides in New York City, and as the story goes, blasted his horn in front of the United Nations as a means for supporting the Green Movement in Iran. "Vatan Kojai?" may serve as a benchmark of sorts. Here, Ladjevardi merges his inward-looking persona with the jazz vernacular and a world music vibe. He chants and hollers when getting his point across, relating to a thematic forum where he scrutinizes his Iranian roots. With Arabic modalities and an intensified rite of passage, featuring Massamba Diop's frothy talking drum patterns, the yearning attributes are deconstructed via guitarist...”

“CD Review: SoSaLa “Nu World Trash” - Nu World Trash is the first album by SoSaLa, the latest project of saxophonist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, formerly of TEHRAN-DAKAR BROTHERS axis. Recorded over the last 3 years in Brooklyn, it features a wide array of musicians, including Alejandro Castellano on guitar, Derek Nievergelt and Damon Banks on bass, Swiss Chris on drums, Kurt Dahlke on electronics, “Indofunk” Satish on the Firebird electric trumpet, Mar Gueye on sabar, Massamba Diop on tama (talking drum), Ladell Mclin on guitar, Piruz Partow on electric tar, and Sylvain Leroux on tamblin (or fula flute). Mr. Ladjevardi plays tenor sax and supplies the voice for the spoken word parts, and wrote most of the music on the album. Overall, Nu World Trash draws from many traditions; one can hear elements of rock, jazz, Persian music, Jajouka, and other influences as well. Most of the pieces have spoken words as well, passionately supplied by Mr. Ladjevardi. Some of the words are in...”

"Quick spins: ‘Nu World Trash’ by SoSaLa" - Freedom, as in civil liberties and free jazz, is the word that best captures “Nu World Trash,” the irrepressible debut by SoSaLa, the intercontinental collective led by Iranian saxophonist and activist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi. Boasting a formidable musical résumé, Ladjevardi has worked with everyone from Malian pop star Salif Keita to Ornette Coleman and Bachir Attar of Morocco’s Master Musicians of Jajouka. “Ja-Jou-Ka,” the album-opening plea for global unity, blends Middle Eastern tonalities, chanted vocals and bleating avant-garde saxophone reminiscent of “Dogon A.D.,” the groundbreaking 1972 album by World Saxophone Quartet founder Julius Hemphill. “Khorasan,” the only track on the record not composed by Ladjevardi, is built around the wistful interplay between the leader’s probing saxophone and the banjolike electric tar. The song pays loving tribute to Ladjevardi’s favorite province in his homeland..."

"Trippy Persian and Global Grooves From SoSaLa" - The new album Nu World Trash by SoSaLa a.k.a. Iranian-American saxophonist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi and his brilliantly assembled ensemble is so eclectic and trippy that it defies description, a woozy blend of dub, Middle Eastern music and American jazz. Producer Martin Bisi expands his own inimitable vision with dark, Lee “Scratch” Perry-inspired psychedelic sonics as the group slips and slinks through grooves with roots in Morocco, Ethiopia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan and the south side of Chicago circa 1963. That’s just for starters. The opening track is characteristic. Titled Ja-Jou-Ka, it’s ostensibly Moroccan, but it could also be Ethiopian, right down to the biting, insistent, minor-key riff and galloping triplet rhythm that emerges from A swirling vortex of low tonalities right before the song winds out with echoey sheets of guitar noise, Ladjevardi’s elegantly nebulous tenor sax lines managing to be wary and hopeful at the.