AMIR ELSAFFAR TRIO

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’s Trio, formed in 2017, consists of tenor saxophonist Ole Mathisen, who is part of the front line of ElSaffar’s Two Rivers and Rivers of Sound Ensembles, and drummer/composer Tomas Fujiwara, with whom ElSaffar has collaborated on a variety of projects. Over the past decade, Mathisen and ElSaffar have developed a deep chemistry and an intuitive ease in their sounds and musical ideas, and have explored a microtonal language that transcends pre-existing modal and harmonic systems. Tomas Fujiwara compliments their sounds with his broad range of timbres and his delicate, precise, yet groovy approach to the drum set. For this performance, the Trio will present a first glimpse into a new microtonal work that will premiere in March at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, with the addition of a microtuned piano.

They will be joined by the innovative Greek pianist Tania Giannouli. Her approach to composition and improvisation combines Greek modalities with Jazz harmony and sensibilities, similar to what ElSaffar does with Iraqi Maqam and jazz. The piano will be radically re-tuned to include specific microtones that exist in a place where Eastern modes and extended Jazz harmony combine into previously unheard resonances.

$15

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