Jazz Articles about Amir ElSaffar

About Amir ElSaffar

Album Review

Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane: At Iridium 2004

Read "At Iridium 2004" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
July 14, 2026

At Iridium 2004 is a vast work. Cecil Taylor also leaves behind similarly vast territories of sound: the 10-disc Feel Trio recordings 2 Ts For A Lovely T (Codanza Records, 1995) or the monumental In Berlin '88 box (FMP, 1989). Within jazz, his music stands like a monolith--challenging and imposing. Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane's At Iridium 2004 continues the tradition. Taylor's hallmark intensity remained undiminished at the Iridium residency. Contemporary accounts suggest that these performances functioned less as ...

Album Review

Phillip Golub: Partisan Ship

Read "Partisan Ship" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
May 31, 2026

In a lot off ways, it is a game of catch-up listening to Brooklyn pianist/improvisor/composer Phillip Golub once he kick-starts the oddly titled Partisan Ship into high gear with “Loyalty Oath," a piece of mad musical fiction that holds attention in place with its octopi rhythms and runaway melodies rushing in all at once. Partisan Ship is oddly titled because Golub, an unapologetic polymath far out on the progressive spectrum, and his juiced and jazzed up cohorts--clarinetist and ...

Live Review

Babel Music 2026

by Martin Longley
March 30, 2026

Le Plateform / Cité De La Musique Marseille, France March 19-21 2026 In the end, the Dock des Suds venue didn't get demolished soon after the 2025 Babel Music weekender. Instead, it has been reborn (and re-bought) as Le Plateforme, looking pretty much unchanged. Therefore Babel (previously known as Babel Med, with a history stretching back two decades) maintained its habitual structure and atmosphere. This prime global music festival operates on multiple levels, balancing local artists ...

Live Review

Amir ElSaffar e Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch a Fabbrica Europa

by Neri Pollastri
October 31, 2024

Amir ElSaffar & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch Fabbrica Europa P.A.R.C. Firenze 14 ottobre 2024 Quasi in conclusione dell'edizione 2024 di Fabbrica Europa, storica rassegna multidisciplinare fiorentina che dedica una sua parte a progetti musicali difficilmente etichettabili, ha trovato spazio quest'anno il progetto del trombettista e cantante chicagoano di origini irachene Amir ElSaffar e del compositore e musicista elettronico italiano Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, che già all'inizio dell'anno precedente avevano calcato i palcoscenici fiorentini per accompagnare ...

Album Review

Aka Moon: Quality of Joy

Read "Quality of Joy" reviewed by Mario Calvitti

by Mario Calvitti
April 3, 2023

Superato anche il traguardo dei 30 anni di attività, il trio belga degli Aka Moon ritorna con un nuovo progetto discografico, che rappresenta una summa del lavoro svolto finora, ma anche un nuovo punto di partenza verso altri orizzonti musicali. Come già accaduto in passato, al trio di base, costituito dal sassofonista Fabrizio Cassol, dal bassista Michel Hatzigeorgiou e dal batterista Stéphane Galland e rimasto invariato in tutti questi anni, si aggiunge un fitto stuolo di musicisti ospiti ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar River of Sound Orchestra: The Other Shore

Read "The Other Shore" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
December 2, 2022

Secondo disco per la Rivers of Sound Orchestra, ensemble creato nel 2015 da Amir ElSaffar con il preciso intento di esplorare in modo originale le culture musicali delle sue origini. ElSaffar è infatti nato negli Stati Uniti da madre statunitense e padre di origini irachene; avvicinatosi precocemente alla musica, ha coltivato quella jazzistica dalla discoteca paterna e quella classica dalle frequentazioni della madre; musicista dalle collaborazioni di altissimo livello--tra gli altri Cecil Taylor e Vijay Iyer--solo da adulto si è ...

Radio & Podcasts

Amir ElSaffar: In search of ecstasy

by Leo Sidran
February 14, 2022

Amir ElSaffar has spent much of his life in search of the ecstatic moments that help connect to something bigger. In his case, he does this through his relationship with music and culture. Trying to define or even explain what he does is not so simple, even for him. He leads five ensembles and has released seven albums over the past 16 years. His primary instrument is the trumpet, and he has devoted much of his career to ...