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Sam Sadigursky

Since moving to New York in 2002, Sam Sadigursky continues to make a mark as both a leader and sideman across a broad spectrum of musical landscapes. His series of four albums of original music based on poetry and text for New Amsterdam Records, entitled The Words Project, have been acclaimed internationally. Noted music critic Steve Smith called them “compelling and touchingly intimate… that rare anomaly: a jazz-and-poetry record that sounds utterly natural and convincing“ and went on to name Sadigursky’s debut album as one of Time Out New York’s top ten albums of 2007, and the New York Times has called them ”gracefully high-minded explorations of poetic form.” Following the 2015 release of his latest album, Follow the Stick, he was named a rising star on clarinet in the Downbeat Magazine Critic’s Poll, on which he has continued to appear annually.

Sam has toured and recorded as a saxophonist and clarinetist with artists as diverse as Brad Mehldau, Lucia Pulido, Gabriel Kahane, Tom Jones, Edmar Castaneda, Linda Oh, The Mingus Orchestra, Rufus Reid, Jamie Baum Septet+, David Yazbek, Ljova, Pablo Mayor’s Folklore Urbano, La Cumbiamba eNeYe, and has been nominated for three Grammy awards for his work with Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society.

As a composer, he has written for film and modern dance and has also published four books of original etudes for clarinet and saxophone. He is the recipient of numerous grants from organizations such as Chamber Music America, ASCAP and the Jerome Foundation.

Sadigursky has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Radio France (Paris), Winter JazzFest (NYC), Moers Festival (Germany), BMW Jazz Festival (Brazil), Jazz al Parque (Bogota, Colombia), Jazztopad (Poland), Tampere Jazz Happening (Finland), and Wangaratta Jazz Festival (Australia). He appears on fifty albums as a sideman, and was most recently the onstage clarinetist for the Grammy and Tony Award winning show The Band’s Visit on Broadway.

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Album Review

John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard

Read "Grooveyard" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Composer/arranger John La Barbera has been at the top of his game for more than half a century, and Grooveyard is simply another example of his undiminished artistry. Besides arranging everything--superbly, as always--La Barbera wrote six of the session's ten charming songs, escorting other treasures by Carl Perkins, Dave Brubeck, Curtis Fuller and Elvin Jones. As he writes his handsome and colorful big-band charts, La Barbera is always careful to observe Rule No. 1: they have to ...

Album Review

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Read "Dynamic Maximum Tension" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Precursore nel 2009 (con l'innovativo Infernal Machines) del nuovo rinascimento orchestrale nel jazz, Darcy James Argue approda all'etichetta Nonesuch e pubblica il nuovo album in studio: un doppio CD realizzato con i consueti partner della Secret Society più l'aggiunta della cantante Cecile McLorin Salvant e della violinista Sara Caswell. A differenza degli ultimi due dischi, Dynamic Maximum Tension non è un'opera multimediale ma conserva la spinta visionaria animata dalla costante riflessione socio-politica. Spinta che si traduce in ...

6
Album Review

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Read "Dynamic Maximum Tension" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Darcy James Argue's superb double-album Nonesuch debut offers compositions written throughout his career. He turns to twentieth-century thinkers for “ideas that can help us in the present, that we can reexamine and reconfigure for our own purposes." These include futurist designer Buckminster Fuller, cryptanalyst-computer scientist Alan Turing, composer-arranger Bob Brookmeyer, actress-screenwriter Mae West, trumpeter-mentor Laurie Frink, and musician-beyond-category Duke Ellington, among others. Like West, Argue seems to control his own path. He may not yet be the tycoon she was, ...

5
Album Review

The John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard

Read "Grooveyard" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


The geometry, if you will, of a terrific big band recording is such that the three major elements--the players, the arrangements, and the performance--balance in every regard. Grooveyard from the John La Barbera Big Band is such an offering. The album features ten masterfully selected, arranged, and performed selections, each containing outstanding section, solo, and ensemble playing. Wes Montgomery's “Grooveyard" launches a hip, swinging first course in which tenor man Pat La Barbera and guitarist Brandon Coleman ...

7
Album Review

Hadar Orshalimy: Witchcraft

Read "Witchcraft" reviewed by Edward Blanco


New York-based Israeli songstress Hadar Orshalimy offers her second album Witchcraft (The Jewish Women of the Great American Songbook), containing nine often-recorded and well-known standards, all written by Jewish women. This project is a follow-up to her critically-acclaimed debut It Never Was You (Self-Produced, 2019) which presented a repertoire of music from famous Jewish composers. This second effort continues the journey of her cultural and religious heritage, driven by her passion for music. A glimpse into her past reveals a ...

Opinion

Sam Sadigursky e i suoi Solomon Diaries

Read "Sam Sadigursky e i suoi Solomon Diaries" reviewed by Gianni Morelenbaum Gualberto


L'estate a New York è sempre stata umida e soffocante. E così l'avvertivano Abraham e Molly Brickman, da poco emigrati dalla Russia. Era il 1908, dopo pochi anni i due coniugi decisero che la metropoli non faceva per loro. Acquistarono un appezzamento di terra a poco prezzo a South Fallsburg, nella contea di Sullivan (detta anche Solomon County), nel pieno dei monti Catskill, a poco più di cento chilometri da Manhattan, non molto tempo prima che la creazione della Route ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Bird Dogs and Licorice Sticks

Read "Bird Dogs and Licorice Sticks" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


Sam Sadigursky is a special guest for this go-round, and the talk ranges from his pledge of fidelity to the clarinet, to his experiences in Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, to his lengthy tour of duty in a big time Broadway production, to his thoughts about bass-clarinet specialist Jason Stein. After he escapes the bastards' clutches, talk turns to two brand new releases and then settles, as it should, on Curtis Mayfield's fashion choices in Pop Matters. ...

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Recording

Leading Contemporary Composer / Clarinetist Sam Sadigursky Celebrates The Release Of A Three-CD Set Inspired By New York’s Borscht Belt Region

Leading Contemporary Composer / Clarinetist Sam Sadigursky Celebrates The Release Of A Three-CD Set Inspired By New York’s Borscht Belt Region

Source: AMT Public Relations

Between international tours with the critically-acclaimed Philip Glass Ensemble, the award-winning composer/clarinetist Sam Sadigursky today announced the upcoming release of his latest recording project The Solomon Diaries. A sophisticated collection of true era-defining cross-genre composition, this trio of compelling albums showcases Sam’s wide-ranging eclecticism that references jazz, world music, and post-minimalism. Inspired by the dramatic rise and fall of the famous Borscht Belt region, The Solomon Diaries is an aural reflection on America’s Jewish Vacationland celebrating the monumental place that ...

3

Recording

Sam Sadigursky Debuts New Band And Album "Follow The Stick" To Be Released On Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records

Sam Sadigursky Debuts New Band And Album "Follow The Stick" To Be Released On Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

The spirit of the organization is firmly rooted in Brooklyn. All of the members reside there, and they wanted to give a nod to the vitality of its scene. —The Wall Street Journals Follow The Stick Features Sam Sadigursky (clarinet/bass clarinet) Chris Dingman (vibes, marimba) Bobby Avey (piano) Jordan Perlson (drums, percussion) Jason Palmer (trumpet on trks 2,5,9,13) Ljova (viola, trk 7) Available November 6, 2015 (North America), November 27 ...

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Radio

The Jazz Session #150: Sam Sadigursky

The Jazz Session #150: Sam Sadigursky

Source: Michael Ricci


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Performance / Tour

Sam Sadigursky's Words Project III: Miniatures NY Debut Friday Jan. 29th at Galapagos Art Space (Dumbo, Brooklyn)

Sam Sadigursky's Words Project III: Miniatures NY Debut Friday Jan. 29th at Galapagos Art Space (Dumbo, Brooklyn)

Source: Fully Altered Media

Sam Sadigurskys Words Project III: Miniatures NY Debut Friday Jan. 29th at Galapagos Art Space (DUMBO, Brooklyn)

The highly anticipated New York debut of Sam Sadigurskys Words Project III: Miniatures, the NY-based saxophonist and composers third installment in the critically acclaimed Words Project series on New Amsterdam Records, will take place Friday January 29th at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO (16 Main St. at the corner of Water St and Main St. Brooklyn, NY 11201) as part of New Amsterdams ARCHIPELAGO Series. These ...

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Performance / Tour

Tony Malaby/Mark Helias (Fri) Jeremy Steig Trio (Sat) Sam Sadigursky's Word Project (Sun) & More This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe

Tony Malaby/Mark Helias (Fri) Jeremy Steig Trio (Sat) Sam Sadigursky's Word Project (Sun) & More This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Weekend At Cornelia Street Cafe Fri Sep 14 9:00PM & 10:30PM ONY MALABY/MARK HELIAS (Tony Malaby, saxophone;Mark Helias, bass) Sat Sep 15 9:00PM & 10:30PM JEREMY STEIG ...

"Subtlety and restraint, combined with power and purpose." -Cadence Magazine, September 2000

"[One] whose name and music you'll hear a lot of in the future." - Richard Kamins, Hartford Courant

On “The Words Project” (New Amsterdam), his impressive new debut, the multireedist Sam Sadigursky sets contemporary poetry to plausible musical settings . - Nate Chinen, NY Times, 9/14/07

“that rare anomaly: a jazz-and-poetry record that sounds utterly natural and convincing" - Steve Smith, www.nightafternight.blog.com

“A wonderful surprise for a poetry translator to have one’s lines set to music. An ominous, solemn score with a piercing voice rising from disquiet. Makes you feel quite ill at ease, as good poetry should.” - Willem Groenewegan (poet, translator of Mark Boog’s “Water, Aspirin, You”)

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Futuro

Self Produced
2023

buy

Witchcraft

Self Produced
2023

buy

Grooveyard

Origin Records
2023

buy

Dynamic Maximum...

Nonesuch Records
2023

buy

Solomon Diaries

Adhyâropa Records
2022

buy

The Solomon Diaries

Adhyâropa Records
2022

buy

Grooveyard

From: Grooveyard
By Sam Sadigursky

Jungle Flowers

From: Mystic Life
By Sam Sadigursky

Kaleidoscope

From: Mystic Life
By Sam Sadigursky

Videos

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