The highly anticipated New York debut of Sam Sadigursky’s Words Project III: Miniatures, the NY-based saxophonist and composer’s 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 Amsterdam’s ARCHIPELAGO Series. These releases mix modern and post-modern poetry with Sadigursky’s unique compositional vision that draws stylistically from both jazz and new music. Source material includes poems by Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg, Maxim Gorky, Léon de Greiff and William Carlos Williams sung by a range of New York-based vocalists including Michael Leonhart, Monika Heidemann, Becca Stevens, Heather Masse and Matt Kanelos.

Here’s what Sam has to say in his own words (from the Naxos blog at Sequenza21.com).

Here’s what the critics are already saying about Words Project III:

The highly respected veteran jazz journalist Doug Ramsey writes on his ArtsJournal blog, Rifftides:

“As we pointed out in a Rifftides posting two years ago today, jazz and poetry never really became a movement. Over the past 90 years or so, the hybridform has had a few peak periods and some embarrassing lows. On the strength of Sam Sadigursky’s work, we may be at one of the peaks.”

Fort Worth Weekly music scribe Ken Shimamoto captures the difference between Words Project III and other poetry-jazz hybrids.

“It would be wrong to call Words Project III: Miniatures a “poetry-jazz” record. To many folks, that description evokes a ’50s movie cliché of goateed beret-and-turtleneck wearers in a smoky basement, snapping their fingers to signify approval of some “Howl”-era Ginsberg caricature backed by stale bebop. What New York-based composer Sam Sadigursky’s up to here is something entirely other. The phrase that pays is “art song.” The record is as redolent of classical music as it is of jazz, while the vocalists’ delivery and Sadigursky’s setting produce a resolutely contemporary sound.“

Friday January 29th
8:00 PM – one set

Sam Sadigursky’s Words Project III: Miniatures Premiere/Release Party
New Amsterdam Records’ ARCHIPELAO Series

Galapagos Art Space
16 Main St. (corner of Water and Main)
Brooklyn, NY 11201 (DUMBO)

Personnel:
Monika Heidemann, Becca Stevens, Heather Masse, Michael Leonhart, Matt Kanelos – voice
Sam Sadigursky – saxophones
Pete Rende – piano, accordion
Nate Radley – guitar
Gary Wang – bass
Richie Barshay – drums/percussion

Sam Sadigursky’s website
Sam Sadigursky’s MySpace page
Sam Sadigursky’s Facebook Fan Page
New Amsterdam Records
Galapagos Art Space

For more information, please contact Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media / 347-527-2527 or 215-629-6155 / matt@fullyaltered.com