Hafez Modirzadeh

HAFEZ MODIRZADEH (aka Hafez Modir - woodwinds and flutes) has published and recorded extensively on an original cross-cultural musical approach he terms "chromodal", from which he received a Ph.D. from Wesleyan University, and lectures on internationally. Hafez' horn playing is deeply rooted in the legacy of African-American musical traditions, yet is also compelled by his Persian heritage. Hafez creates melodies that adapt Middle Eastern and African-American sources into an intelligent and most original melodic conception. His invention of the "chromodal" method allows for a nonlinear improvisational practice that is able to adapt to and incorporate multiple systems of music, permitting a cross-cultural "conversation."

Twice an NEA Jazz Fellow ('89, '91), Modir was granted a Fulbright to work with Gnawan and Flamenco musicians in Morocco and Andalucia, in 2005-06, which resulted in his latest CD, "Bemsha Alegria" (available on Disques Chromodal, at www.hafezmodir.com). Currently a full-time faculty at San Francisco State University, Dr. Modirzadeh directs the World Music and Dance Program and has performed with Don Cherry, Zakir Hussein, Steve Lacy, Oliver Lake, James Newton, Leo Smith, Omar Sosa, and many Asian and Asian American musical artists such as Fred Ho, Liu Chi Chao, Danongan Kalanduyan, Mark Izu, Anthony Brown, Akira Tana, and Kenny Endo.

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Hafez Modirzadeh Saxophone

Album Review

In Convergence Liberation by Hrayr Attarian
In Convergence Liberation by Karl Ackermann
In Convergence Liberation by Dan Bilawsky
In Convergence Liberation by Alberto Bazzurro
Facets by Hrayr Attarian

All Music Guide "Saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh is unlike any other ... "Saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh is unlike any other player or composer out there. His relationship to the musical whole on his recordings is an approach that carries within it a host of contradictions, especially as it engages Eastern modalism and European chromaticism. This set, which is earmarked by the truly lovely "Tetrapath: Music," (which earmarks the entire proceeding) is a concept on the union of these two pursuits and how they play out, not only in jazz and improvised music, but in the languages folk musics, and how they inform and engage one another through the general vision of cultures and the particular gaze of musicians