Jazz Articles about Amir ElSaffar

About Amir ElSaffar

Live Review

Amir ElSaffar Muziekgebouw World Première LUMINESCENCIA at Flamenco Biennale NL 2019 Amsterdam February 2, 2019 Luminescencia" is a new work by US-American composer-musician Amir ElSaffar, co-produced by Dutch Flamenco Biënnale and French Fondation Royaument. It had its world-première in Amsterdam at this year's Flamenco Biennale, a country-wide festival in The Netherlands founded by Ernestina van de Noort in 2006. The line-up of the performing ensemble already indicated the extraordinary character of ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar Rivers of Sound: Rivers of Sound

Read "Rivers of Sound" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
May 7, 2018

Questa monumentale opera del compositore e trombettista iracheno-americano sviluppa una sintesi musicale iniziata nel 2006 col sestetto Two Rivers di cui facevano parte anche il sassofonista Rudresh Mahanthappa e il batterista Nasheet Waits. Amir ElSaffar fonde il jazz d'avanguardia con alcune forme tradizionali orientali: la dimensione melodica microtonale del maqam convive con un cangiante tappeto ritmico e timbrico che si dipana da atmosfere statiche, atemporali, ad altre sinuose o concitate. Strumenti a corda come oud, buzuq e santur oppure percussivi ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar/Rivers of Sound: Not Two

Read "Not Two" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 14, 2018

Much has been written about Amir ElSaffar's Iraqi-American background and the influence that birthright has had on his music. The demographics, however, do little to prepare the ear for the exotic and completely distinctive sound that he creates. ElSaffar's Western and Middle Eastern amalgam of disciplines had best manifested itself in his sextet, the Two Rivers Ensemble. His Rivers of Sound ensemble of seventeen players expands ElSaffar's musical reach to incorporate a broader global perspective on Not Two.There ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar: Crisis

Read "Crisis" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 27, 2015

Trentotto anni, chicagoano, padre iracheno e madre statunitense, Amir ElSaffar naviga a mezza via tra jazz canonico (inteso come linguaggio, non nel senso di mainstream) e musica araba, che si combinano, sovrapponendosi o giustapponendosi, nel procedere del suo sestetto, attivo (e immutabile) ormai da diversi anni. Diciamo subito che ciò che ci convince di meno è la vocalità dello stesso ElSaffar, fin troppo calata in una logica espressiva stereotipata e tutto sommato priva di quella vis rigenerativa ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar and the Two Rivers Ensemble: Crisis

Read "Crisis" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 20, 2015

On his third album with the Two Rivers ensemble, Crisis trumpeter and composer Amir ElSaffar continues to explore the Arabic Maqam modal system. He uses this melodic type in a context with strong American influences and particularly jazz sensibilities. The result is not merely a superficial, kitschy fusion but true marriage of two improvisational traditions. ElSaffar's tenure In Egypt and Lebanon partly inspired the seven-part suite commissioned for and performed at the 2013 Newport Jazz Festival. The work's ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar: Crisis

Read "Crisis" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 17, 2015

Chicago area native, Amir ElSaffar has been working inside and outside the typical context of jazz since his Two Rivers Ensemble debut, Two Rivers (PI Recordings, 2007). The trumpeter and composer (and master santour player) has built a unique musical architecture based his study of the microtonal techniques of his ancestral Iraqi maqam. While ElSaffar was not raised with a strong sense of father's native culture, his own interest led him to travel extensively in the Middle East. His recent ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar: Alchemy

Read "Alchemy" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
March 3, 2014

Segnatevi questo nome perché Amir ElSaffar è destinato a fare grandi cose. Sull'esempio di Charles Tolliver e Woody Shaw omaggiati nella postbopppistica “Athar Kurd," il trombettista statunitense di origini irachene vanta un timbro caldo ed avvolgente. Il suo magniloquente solismo è qui sostenuto da una originale progettualità rivolta ad integrare le tecniche modali arabe nel mondo dell'improvvisazione jazzistica. Nelle due suites proposte vengono esplorati i sette sistemi modali del maqam, che vanta una millenaria origine assiro-babilonese. Esemplare ...