AMIR ELSAFFAR

AMIR ELSAFFAR - SOLO

Composer, trumpeter, santur player, and vocalist Amir ElSaffar has been described as “uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music,” (the Wire) and “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” (Chicago Tribune).
ElSaffar is an expert trumpeter with a classical background, conversant not only in the language of contemporary jazz, but has created techniques to play microtones and ornaments idiomatic to Arabic music that are not typically heard on the trumpet. Additionally, he is a purveyor of the centuries old, now endangered, Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur player. As a composer, ElSaffar has used the subtle microtones found in Iraqi maqam  music to create an innovative approach to harmony and melody, and has received commissions to compose for large and small jazz ensembles, traditional Middle Eastern ensembles, chamber orchestras, string quartets, and contemporary music ensembles, as well as dance troupes.

Amir ElSaffar Solo

In this performance, ElSaffar combines his melismatic Maqam vocals, broad range of trumpet timbres and extended techniques, and trance-inducing santur, with the latest instrument that he has added to his palette, the modular synthesizer. This solo project, with its combination of electronic and acoustic elements, represents a new direction in ElSaffar’s oeuvre yet is a continuation of his overall musical aesthetic based on the Arabic notion of tarab, or musical ecstasy.