Saxophonist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, stage name SoSaLa, is a composer, a musician’s rights advocate, and label owner. He is also somewhat of a world citizen as he was born in Switzerland to Iranian parents, spent several years in the late 20th century working in Japan, and is currently based in the United States.
In 2024, he released a captivating live album from his archives, 1994-Live at CBGB (DooBeeDoo Records, 2024). Less than a year later, he released an earlier recording from two Swiss dates from July 1983. The provocative 1983 - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival and Rathausplatz Bern features the SADATO GROUP that includes, in addition to the leader (known in Japan as Sadato), guitarist and bassist Mutsuhiko Izumi and pianist and drummer Hitoshi Usami.
The heavily improvised music is a seamless fusion of energetic No Wave and Free Jazz. This is not a simple pastiche of genres but an exploration of the spontaneity and delightful dissonance common to both styles. “Confusing World”, for instance, starts off with an electronic drone that creates an otherworldly ambience. Simmering keyboard phrases, bent guitar notes, and angular piano chords mix, creating an absorbing mood. The track dovetails seamlessly into “MJF's When I'm Crazy, I'm Normal” with Sadato’s whimsical repartee with the audience alternating with his fiery saxophone solos that Usami’s thunderous drumming and Izumi’s muscular refrains support.
The interaction with the audience is not only in spoken words, which Sadato does in both English and German. It is also in the musical form. The way the trio involves the attendees in their creative process is both elegant and effortless. On “Paul Klee’s Musical Colors” from the Bern date, Izumi’s reverberating strings echo against Usami’s rapid-fire beats, creating a thrillingly riotous rhythmic framework. Izumi deftly coaxes out of his instrument energetic, almost voice-like phrases that Usami punctuates with his polyrhythms. At the climax of this riotous performance, the leader enters with his wailing sax. Thus, the musicians blur the lines between verbal and instrumental addresses to the audience.
This becomes even clearer on the following “Zehn Vor Vier in Bern”. Sadato goes from blowing his horn with abandon, delivering a monologue in German, and playing atonal phrases on a harmonica. The concertgoers can be heard responding and clapping enthusiastically. Izumi and Usami lay down a percussive, tempestuous groove that hints at rock-ish backbeats with a swinging sense. Sadato concludes with a melancholic chorus before bidding everyone farewell.
In addition to the superb music it contains, 1983 - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival and Rathausplatz Bern is an intriguing historical document. It highlights the extemporized experimentations in which artists like the SADATO GROUP were engaged. Hopefully, more will be available from SoSaLa’s “vault” for modern listeners to enjoy
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