Spaghetti Eastern Music!
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Bio: Spaghetti Eastern Music
Can acid jazz and blues-fired guitar instrumentals co-exist with ambient soundscapes a la Fripp & Eno and intimate DADGAD-tuned vocal ballads straight out of the Nick Drake/John Martyn playbook? They can and do in Spaghetti Eastern Music, the critically-acclaimed solo project of Saugerties & NYC-based guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Sal Cataldi.
Cataldi’s varied sound comes from an insatiable musical soul and a record collection rivaling the Smithsonian’s. His debut album, “Sketches of Spam,” is a 16-track, 69-minute, genre-surfing release (Bad Egg Records, 30003). It moves from instrumentals inspired by ’70s Miles, Krautrock, Ennio Morricone, Bhangra, Fripp & Eno and ECM’s Terje Rypdal to bare-bones acoustic vocal tunes often anchored on unusual tunings and narratives about difficult loves, in styles from Brit Folk to Bossa Nova.
Notable releases and singles:
- 2020: atmospheric singles “Her Lemon Peel Raincoat – Because It’s Raining,” “Peace Within,” and “And This is Their New Hoax” (a COVID-19 musical editorial featuring samples of President Trump).
- February 2021: “Blues for A Lost Cosmonaut,” a nine-minute-plus ambient maxi single.
- October 2021: “Solo Guitar Score for 2x2x4,” a solo electric guitar score to a dance piece recorded live at the Avant-Garde Arama Festival in Woodstock.
- June 2022: acoustic single “I Believe In Love” (named “NY Slice” song of the day on WFMU).
- January 2023: instrumental singles “A Scanner Darkly” and “A Fresh Kill.”
- October 2023: acoustic ballad “Sweet Home Anywhere” and funky instrumental “Jungle Blue.”
- December 2023: “health,” a solo guitar score for a film by director/American Ballet Theater dancer Hanna Bass.
Spaghetti Eastern Music has received consistent critical raves. Selected quotes:
- The New York Times: “the funk-tinged original instrumentals and acoustic vocal tunes have a beat unmistakably his own.”
- Time Out New York: “Cataldi's largely instrumental, Eastern-influenced jams are infused with some delicate guitar work and hauntingly moody atmosphere.”
- Newsday: “Mad scientist-guitarist-keyboardist Cataldi brings da funk and throws it in a mixer with electronica, bebop and blues.”
- The Village Voice: “truly excellent.”
- Radio Woodstock: “a wild ride, a fun name for some very good music.”
- WFUV’s Mixed Bag: “beautiful and unique.”
- UPI: “triumphantly funkified.”
- The New York Press: “a stimulating soloist.”
- Aquarian Weekly: “a jazz virtuoso without the need to prove it.”
- Almanac Weekly (John Burdick): “a unique voice, a surprising blend of exploratory fusion, electronica and indie song craft...”
- Chronogram Magazine: “cool, inspired, sophisticated, melodic and transcendent, a wave of sonic warmth and light.”
- John Swenson (East Coast Rocker/Rolling Stone): “he’s the hippie guitarist playing to another dimension.”
- Hudson Valley One: “Part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation.”
- Psychedelic Baby Magazine: “the perfect sonic tonic for these troubled times.”
Other press and airplay:
- The Beatles Examiner praised the album’s “sharp soaring guitar jams” and called the cover of “Ticket to Ride” “incredible, a wonderfully moody re-imagining.”
- Huffington Post called it “the perfect soundtrack for New York City life.”
- WFMU’s Irene Trudel: “charmingly melodic and off-center.”
- Zappa fan sites Idiot Bastard and United Mutations praised his reinvention of Zappa’s “Sleep Dirt” (appearing on the CD as “Nap Dust”).
- Radio airplay includes WFUV (Mixed Bag), SiriusXM, WKCR-FM, Radio Woodstock, WFMU, Oakland’s KALX, WCWP, WDFU, WVRK, WHPC and others.
Other projects and collaborations:
- Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom (co-lead with Kansas City-based drummer D. Hitchcock), with guest appearances by Percy Jones; HKToD released Escape Velocity (1999) and Geolago (2002).
- Collector (former heavy metal bebop quartet) released the instrumental Almost Live (1999).
- Vapor Vespers (with Alaskan playwright/poet Mark Muro): albums One Act Sonix and Ghosts Before Breakfast.
- Guitars A Go Go (duo with guitarist Rick Warren): debut Travel Advisory (May 2020).
- Member of Hudson Valley space/surf rock quartet spaceheater.
Background and other work:
Cataldi was part of the early-to-mid-90s downtown scene band Frank’s Museum, which performed at clubs including CBGB, The Ritz, Tramps, Coney Island High, Lone Star Roadhouse and Maxwell’s. His work with the Museum appears on Brooklyn Beat compilations and the CDs Den of Antiquity (1992) and Make Coffee, Not War (1993).
He was featured on Rhys Chatham’s 200-guitar orchestra recording A Crimson Grail (Nonesuch) live at Lincoln Center. Cataldi is also a journalist with writing in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NYStateMusic.com, No Depression, Adweek, Inside+Out Upstate NY, Huff Post and others. He hosts Reading Is Funktamental, a monthly show about books about music on WGXC 90.7 FM.
Contacts:
- Cell: 516.236.3817
- Email: spaghettieasternmusic@gmail.com
- Web: https://open.spotify.com/artist/73gcZJVIpQIMaQSOtKzA8C?si=yu_qtKbQTuCkkfOlTd8Apg
- Bandcamp: Spaghettieasternmusic.bandcamp.com
- Live performance videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLau0iuwO-klW64b-8Zv_R7BqEDnsnBTqw
Updated 3/24