Amir ElSaffar

Last updated

Amir ElSaffar (born 1977 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. His compositions combine jazz, classical, and traditional Arabic music.

Contents

Biography

ElSaffar was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1977. His mother, Ruth Anthony El Saffar, an American, was a Cervantes scholar and Jungian analyst. His father, Zuhair El Saffar, is an Iraqi immigrant and physicist. He studied classical music at Depaul University in Chicago. In 2001, he won the Carmine Caruso Jazz Trumpet Competition and the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Improvisation Competition. He studied Iraqi maqam music in Baghdad and learned to play an Iraqi instrument, the santur. He began to weave traditional Arabic music into modern jazz trumpet. In 2007, he released his debut album, Two Rivers, for Pi Recordings. [1] For the 2020-2021 school year, he is a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. [2]

ElSaffar has created new techniques to play microtones and ornaments that are idiomatic to Arab music but are not typically heard on the trumpet. As a composer, ElSaffar has used the microtones found in maqam music to create a unique approach to harmony and melody.

In 2002 he began studying the maqam tradition of music composition in Baghdad and London, with Hamid al-Saadi, one of the most renowned maqam singers in Iraq and is currently an acknowledged performer of the classical Iraqi maqam tradition. He performs actively as a vocalist and santur player with his group, Safaafir, the only ensemble in the US performing Iraqi Maqam in its traditional format.

In 2006, ElSaffar received commissions from the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia and from the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), to compose Two Rivers, a suite that invokes Iraqi musical traditions and frames them in a modern jazz setting. ElSaffar has since received commissions from the Jerome Foundation, the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and Chamber Music America and has continued developing a singular approach to integrating Middle Eastern tonalities and rhythms into an American jazz context, releasing three albums; Two Rivers (2006), Radif Suite (2010), and Inana (2011) to critical acclaim. He has also composed for theater projects and film soundtracks, and appeared in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated film, Rachel Getting Married.

As a sideman, ElSaffar has performed with Cecil Taylor, Simon Shaheen, Randy Brecker, Miya Masaoka, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, and Samir Chatterjee.

In addition to his busy performance schedule, ElSaffar curates a weekly concert series at Alwan for the Arts, New York's premiere center for Middle Eastern arts and culture.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Iraq</span> Music and musical traditions of Iraq

The music of Iraq or Iraqi music,, also known as the music of Mesopotamia, encompasses the music of a number of ethnic groups and musical genres. Ethnically, it includes Mesopotamian Arabic, Assyrian, Kurdish and the music of Turkmen, among others. Apart from the traditional music of these peoples, Iraqi music includes contemporary music styles such as pop, rock, soul and urban contemporary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arabic music</span> Music of the Arab World

Arabic music or Arab music is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic dialects, with each country and region having their own traditional music.

The music of Iran encompasses music that is produced by Iranian artists. In addition to the traditional folk and classical genres, it also includes pop and internationally celebrated styles such as jazz, rock, and hip hop.

Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music or Iranian classical music, refers to the classical music of Iran. It consists of characteristics developed through the country's classical, medieval, and contemporary eras. It also influenced areas and regions that are considered part of Greater Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraqi maqam</span>

Iraqi Maqam is a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq. The roots of modern Iraqi maqam can be traced as far back as the Abbasid Caliphate, when that large empire was controlled from Baghdad. The ensemble of instruments used in this genre, called Al Chalghi al Baghdadi, includes a qari' (singer), santur, goblet drum, joza, cello, and sometimes oud and naqqarat. The focus is on the poem sung in classical Arabic or an Iraqi dialect. A complete maqam concert is known as fasl and is named after the first maqam: Bayat, Hijaz, Rast, Nawa, or Husayni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pi Recordings</span>

Pi Recordings is a jazz record label founded by Seth Rosner in 2001. He was soon joined as partner by Yulun Wang. Pi specializes in avant-garde jazz. Its first two albums were by Henry Threadgill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parviz Meshkatian</span> Musical artist

Parviz Meshkatian was an Iranian musician, composer, researcher and university lecturer.

Alex Cline is an American jazz drummer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazem al-Ghazali</span> Musical artist

Nazem al-Ghazali was one of the most popular singers in the history of Iraq and his songs are still heard by many in the Arab world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omar Bashir (musician)</span> Iraqi-Hungarian musician

Omar Bashir is an Iraqi-Hungarian musician. His father, Munir Bashir, was considered to be the supreme master of the Arab maqamat scale system.

The Festival of New Trumpet Music is a nonprofit organization founded by jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas to encourage aspiring trumpeters. The annual festival consists of concerts and workshops over a two to three week period in New York City in September. FONT also gives an Award of Recognition to a distinguished trumpeter who has made an important contribution to the instrument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faramarz Payvar</span>

Master Farâmarz Pâyvar was an Iranian composer and santur player. Payvar died on 9 December 2009 after a long struggle with brain damage. Although once perceived as marginal, the santur is now considered an important solo instrument in Persian classical music, largely as a result of his work. Over the course of his career, Payvar revolutionised its playing, led two major ensembles and made numerous recordings.

Farida Mohammad Ali is an Iraqi singer. She performs regularly in the Iraqi Maqam Ensemble. The ensemble was established in 1989 in Baghdad by Mohammad H.Gomar to continue of the 1973 ensemble organized by the prominent lute professor Munir Bashir. She had taught maqam singing at the Baghdad Conservatory. She left Iraq in 1997. She is married to Mohammad Gomar the Djozza instrument player and lives in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Simon (musician)</span> Venezuelan jazz pianist and composer (born 1969)

Edward Simon is a Venezuelan jazz pianist and composer.

Third stream is a music genre that is a fusion of jazz and classical music. The term was coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture at Brandeis University. Improvisation is generally seen as a vital component of third stream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernie Hammes</span> Musical artist

Ernie Hammes is a Luxembourger trumpet virtuoso, arranger, composer, and big band director who is prolific in both jazz and classical idioms. Notably in jazz, Hammes toured with Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau band in 2005, alternating between the lead and jazz roles. Hammes has performed in more than twenty-five countries while simultaneously supporting the jazz scene in Luxembourg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manoochehr Sadeghi</span> Iranian-American musician

Manoochehr Sadeghi is a Persian-American naturalized citizen, born in Tehran, Iran. He is considered a Grandmaster or Ostad of the santur, a Persian hammered dulcimer. He has been lecturing, teaching, recording and performing Persian classical music on the santur professionally for over 50 years. In 2002, Sadeghi received the Durfee Foundation Master Musician Award and he is a recipient of a 2003 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

Majid Kiani is an Iranian musician and researcher. He was the student of great masters such as: Noor Ali Boroomand, Abdollah Davami, Abolhasan Saba, and Dariush Safvat, among others. He plays Santur, and teaches traditional Iranian music. His masterpiece is the book named: "Seven Dastgah(s) of Iranian Music". He is a leading figure in the Iranian musical establishment, and known for his controlled expositions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santur</span> Hammered dulcimer of Iranian origin

The santur, is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian or Mesopotamian origins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Richman</span> American conductor and writer (born 1946)

Steven Richman is a GRAMMY Award-nominated American conductor and writer. He is music director of Harmonie Ensemble/New York, which he founded in 1979, and the Dvořák Festival Orchestra of New York.

References

  1. Collar, Matt. "Amir ElSaffar | Biography & History | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  2. "Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton announces five Hodder Fellows for 2020-2021". Lewis Center for the Arts. 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2020-10-12.