A few new things to report... Along with percussionist Art Solari, I recently wrote and performed the music for "The Ultimate Wish", a documentary about the use of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the lifelong work by many of the survivors to abolish nuclear weapons. Look for it on television and in film festivals later this year.
 
Also, my first book of clarinet etudes is now for sale on Amazon.com. Look for the second book later this summer. I'll be showcasing the book at the International Clarinet Association convention in July, which takes place this year in Austin, Texas.
 
I'll have the great honor of performing with the legendary Colombian singer Toto la Momposina in NYC in June at the annual Encuentro at Museo del Barrio, and will be performing at the Newport Jazz Festival for the first time with Darcy James Argue's Secret Society in August.
 

Heartache, despair, and courage are some of the many themes sprinkled about this fascinating look into picturesque wordplay, heightened by the imaginative piano, electric keyboard, and woodwind surroundings provided by the clever, innovative, and tasteful Sam Sadigursky.
 
To read the entire review, go here: http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:j9fixzesldke.

I recently talked to Jason Crane, who produces the Jazz Session podcast for All About Jazz. He plays excerpts from the new records amidst our conversation. To listen to it, go to: http://thejazzsession.com/2010/03/11/the-jazz-session-150-sam-sadigursky/, or download it on iTunes.

Monika Hiedemann joined me for a feature on this week's Popcast, which also features new music from Johnny Cash and Joanna Newsom. We recorded duo versions of Therapy (poem by Audre Lorde) and Dream Keeper (poem by Langston Hughes) for it, and an interview with Monika and me follows. Go to the NY Times website to listen to it or download it on iTunes.

"For the past few years the New York jazz saxophonist Sam Sadigursky has been working on a series of albums called “Words Project,” putting poetry to musical settings. They’re personal, not particularly restricted by ideas of musical genre, quite complex and resolutely unshowy. The newest is “Words Project III: Miniatures” (New Amsterdam), with poems by Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Patchen and others, and it does some of what you expect from records like this, counterposing metrical rhythm and free-verse breath lines against musical schemes. But it does a lot more too, with a cast of nine different singers. There are warm pop ballads, voices overlapping in a choir, jagged polyrhythms built of woodwinds, bass lines on a constant walk, kalimbas setting up a mode for the singer. Ultimately the album doesn’t lean too heavily on the strength of the words. It’s as if the process energized Mr. Sadigursky so much that he wrote music good enough to take your mind off the poems."
 
I won't be able to put up the new CD on this site until next week, but you can preview it at the New Amsterdam Records website. It's also available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon.

Thanks to everybody who came out to Galapagos for the release concert. It was great fun performing the new material live for the first time. I've posted some videos from the concert on YouTube.
 
Look for a write-up of the CD by Ben Ratliff in this Sunday's New York Times. There are already some great reviews that have been published online.
 
You can now purchase the CD at iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, and the New Amsterdam Records website.

The launch for Words Project III: Miniatures is Friday January 29th at Galapagos in DUMBO, Brooklyn. It's going to feature special guests from all three Words Project CD's, including Monika Heidemann, Heather Masse, Becca Stevens, Michael Leonhart, Matt Kanelos, Pete Rende, Richie Barshay and many others. One long set at 8 PM. Go to my gigs page for links.
 
You can preview the record at the New Amsterdam Records site, and there is a video of "To Know Silence Perfectly" (directed by Doug Jacobson) on YouTube.
 
There are a number of reviews of the CD already, including the Ft. Worth Weekly, Detroit Free Press, Rifftides, and JazzChicago.net.
 
The album goes up for sale at most places on January 26th.

A lot of things are on the horizon... I just finished Words Project III, which will come out on New Amsterdam Records on January 29th of next year. It's a collection of 18 miniatures for a number of different groupings and features many of my favorite vocalists and musicians, including Michael Leonhart, who also recorded and co-produced. Celebrating its release, there will be a Words Project extravaganza at Galapagos in DUMBO on 1/29/10, featuring performers and songs from all three albums.
 
Also, I leave next week for a month in Europe, which will include concerts with Lucia Pulido, Sandra Hempel, David Doruzka, and two concerts in Paris with Laurent Coq that are supported by the Chamber Music America/French American Cultural Exchange (FACE) grant. Both of the concerts in Paris, one of which will be recorded and broadcast nationally, will feature new settings by both Laurent Coq and myself.
 
In addition, I have written a book of 25 clarinet etudes that will be out later this year, soon to be followed up by a second book of 25. More details on this to come.
 

Welcome to my new website, which I'm really excited about. A number of things are in the works for the coming months, including a CD release tour in Europe with Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and a collaboration with pianist/composer Laurent Coq based on a grant from Chamber Music America and the French American Cultural Exchange, which will culminate in several concerts in Europe this fall, including Radio France on November 21st. I'm also in the final stages of completing a new Words Project album which I hope to release in the fall, which is a collection of twenty miniatures featuring some extraordinary singers and musicians and is recorded and co-produced with Michael Leonhart. Please check back periodically for updates, and be sure to visit my blog, www.theoneseat.blogspot.com