Friday, January 29, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Words Project III Podcast now available



The podcast about the new CD is now up on New Amsterdam. It was produced by rising star Jacob Paul. Hit the podcast button on the upper right of the homepage to listen to it. Hopefully it will be up on iTunes soon.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Detroit Free Press review

By Mark Stryker.

See it here.

The overlapping a cappella voices that open Sam Sadigursky's "Words Project III Miniatures" (***, New Amsterdam, in stores Tuesday) hit the ear with a bracing freshness: What have we here? Sadigursky, a saxophonist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, creates compelling soundscapes that sit on the intersection of the classical art song and a wide-ranging eclecticism that references jazz, world music, post-minimalism and pop.

Sadigursky sets texts by Carl Sandburg , William Carlos Williams, Maxim Gorky and others with an aphoristic flair. He bypasses song forms for through-composed settings that hug the imagery of the poetry. Whispered like a secret, Emily Dickinson's "Light" marries a lonely woman's voice with gentle counterpoint from acoustic guitars. Williams' jaunty, slightly warped "Danse Russe" lopes along jazzily on a bed of walking plucked cello, with Sadigursky's voice doubled by plucked viola. Vibes and various "little instruments" create an exotic wash.
The bass line and vibes on "Danse Russe" recall Eric Dolphy's "Hat and Beard," but Sadigursky mostly creates a self-contained sound world of beguiling combinations of vocalists and mysterious orchestration. After a while, I willingly gave up trying to parse the details: As in some modernist poetry, the sound of the music becomes meaning.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

To Know Silence Perfectly

Thanks to Doug Jacobson for making the video.

The song is based on a poem by Carl Sandburg and is available Jan. 26th on Words Project III: Miniatures
. Monika Heidemann is featured on vocals.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Step Tempest

Richard Kamins on Words Project III: Miniatures.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Words and Music That Can Touch the Soul


Words Project III: Miniatures
- Sam Sadigursky (New Amsterdam) - In his ongoing project to connect poetry with original music, saxophonist Sadigursky has, in the past, created elaborate works, with melodies that often used a small coterie of instruments in counterpoint with the vocals. The 3rd entry in the series concentrates more on the sound and shape of the words, this time allowing the poetry to dictate the form of the songs. Few of the 18 tracks have more than 3 or 4 instruments playing; there's no real rhythm section and solos are rare. This time out, Sadigursky's focus is on the voice - even the one track that has no words is a chorale written for voices. Working alongside multi-instrumentalist Michael Leonhart (and a number of musicians and vocalists), Sadigursky is not interested in displaying his (or his sideman's) technical facility but in making the listener move easily into this aural landscape. Sometimes it's tough, the words whiz by, the images don't make immediate sense - go back, play the cut again and again and, as you do, the words and music start to come into focus.


If you've not read Carl Sandburg in decades, you may have forgotten how he could create such vivid images in short sentences. There are 4 examples on this disk and each one has a unique soundscape. "Wistful"utilizes Leonhart's multi-tracked brass chorale to frame the lines while "Swirl" moves on the Middle-Eastern percussion of Richie Barshay and droning background vocals. "To Know Silence Perfectly" utilizes several keyboards, sounding not unlike Brian Wilson in his "Smile" days or the simple yet haunting songs of Robert Wyatt. Numerous horns and strings play in unison with Leonhart on "Stars, Songs, Faces" and there's a dreamy quality to this beautiful idea of how to live your life that the poet asks his reader to consider. The shortness of the cut (1:07) only strengthens the message of impermanence.

Other poets include William Carlos Williams (his "Dance Russe" is a mad look at the creative process while "El Hombre"has the feel of Brazilian poem/melody by Caetano Veloso), Sadi Ranson-Politizotti (her "Now" is a song of love that Karlie Bruce sings with an aching tenderness over a chamber music ensemble) and Kenneth Patchen ("Do Me That Love" has the feel of a introspective John Lennon work.) "O Muzyke Tolstykh" uses text by Maxim Gorky that is a scree against modern jazz with a soundscape featuring bass clarinet, piccolo, baritone saxophone, tabla and moaning brass. "Light (Ample Make This Bed") features a handsome guitar melody (played by Andrew McKenna Lee) over which Heather Masse quietly recites a wondrous piece by Emily Dickinson. Sadigursky also wrote music for the words of contemporary poets Michael Lally, Han Dong, and Maureen N. McLane as well as older poets such as David Ignatow (1914 - 1997), Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), León de Greiff (1895-1976), and Alena Synkova (1926 - ?, the only child-poet to survive the Terezin Concentration camp.


Sam Sadigursky is a busy musician, playing and recording with the likes of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Folklore Urbano, Tibagui, Julie Hardy and Rob Mosher's Storytime. He's a fine, articulate, player whose sweet tone enlivens the various ensembles he plays with. Yet, the Words Project CDs offers listeners the opportunity to hear Sadigursky the composer, arranger and orchestrator. While there is an "art song" quality about the Projects (a style which often has a distant and impassive feel), the majority of the pieces on "..III" have emotional weight and many speak of longing or love or sadness. The musical backdrops may be spare at times (the use of kalimba on "Rain" is a perfect touch as the hand-held African thumb piano's sound can resemble falling water) but never out of touch with the words. In this time when one can be surrounded by "talk shows" on television and radio as well as the constant jabbering of politicians and fundamentalists, these "Miniatures" pack quite a punch.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The One Constant

I shot this earlier tonight... Danny is currently mixing a new record of material that should be out in May or June. He's been one of my favorite pianists and composers for a long time now.

Danny Fox: piano, composition
Chris VanVorstVanBeest: bass
Max Goldman: drums

live at Cafe Vivaldi

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Rules



New York Times contributor Jon Pareles thoughtfully weighs in on the impact of music downloading and the new music business here.