Praise for Two Rivers
"[ElSaffar's] first album under his own name, Two Rivers (Pi Recordings), [is] a staggering accomplishment
that subtly erases the lines between his two chosen disciplines…while plenty of horn players have tapped into Middle Eastern modalities since John Coltrane became fascinated with Eastern sounds in the late 60s, it's rare to hear it done with such conviction and authority." ~ Peter Margasak, The Chicago Reader
"harrowing to absorb; full of as much beauty as pain" --BBC World Service
"…hypnotic and arresting. The context is so unusual that it feels otherworldly when ElSaffar plays the santoor, or hammered dulcimer, over Carlo DeRosa's mesmerizing bass and the elegant stickwork of the much-in-demand drummer Nasheet Waits…This is new turf, and it's likely to be a lot for either culture to digest. Yet the feeling and eloquence that emanate from this sextet make the experiment worthwhile. ~ Karl Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"…there's an awful lot going on here, none of it betrayed by that whiff of exoticism carried by so many other jazz-initiated fusions of this sort, no matter how sincere. As with Vijay Iyer's Indian rhythmic cycles or Anthony Brown's Asianized Gershwin, the difference is all in the artist's acute awareness of his own."
~ Francis Davis, The Village Voice —“Rookies of the Year”
"[Two Rivers] bridges the two worlds with empathy and precision..." ~ Downbeat
"fresh, deep, intensely performed music…an organic amalgam" ~ Chris Kelsey, Jazz Times (December, 2007)
"ambitious and deftly executed" ~ Siddhartha Mitter, The Boston Globe—Best CDs of 2007
"a beautiful and sophisticated mix" ~ WNYC--Soundcheck: CD Picks of the Week
"ElSaffar combines his dual heritage into a vigorous hybrid… [and] weaves mesmerizing new tunes out of traditional Iraqi maqam." ~ Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper-Top 10 Jazz CDs of 2007
"Two Rivers makes a strong case for improvised cross-cultural exchange." ~ NateChinen-New York Times Jazz Listings
"A gorgeous record balanced between two worlds, Two Rivers is a stirring example of the creative possibilities
of international jazz in the 21st century." ~ Troy Collins, www.allaboutjazz.com
"Say the words "Iraqi-jazz hybrid" — or any sort of "ethno-jazz," for that matter — and it conjures a sort of watered-down background music for eccentrics. But the beauty of these "Blues" is that they require no legitimizing cultural authenticity. Tareq Abboushi's buzuq sounds like a distorted acoustic guitar, plenty powerful for improvising unfamiliar yet instinctively fitting textures. And the dialogue between ElSaffar and alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa…brings the fire of '60s free jazz without sacrificing the pulsating rhythmic undercurrent. Like the best jazz, this music celebrates the ability of great musicians to imagine unfamiliar territory, and navigate it in a way that makes for both intuitive understanding and compelling listening."
~ NPR: song of the day Iraqi Jazz Gets 'The Blues' By Patrick Jarenwattananon
"deeply affecting, musically adventurous, and provocative…it seems the right time for a musical project that aims to cross boundaries and give insight into the historical and current experiences of the Iraqi People." ~ Laurel Gross, All About Jazz New York
"Iraqi-American trumpeter and visionary Amir ElSaffar is weaver of genres here on this altogether, enticing progressive-jazz effort…[his] mindset conveys a wide-ranging fusion of disparate musical climates as his methodologies harvest a rather joyous celebration of the spirits. Simply put, it sounds as though it was meant to be."
~ Glenn Astarita, jazz review
"Two Rivers by Amir ElSaffar is in itself a force created by nature...this release travels over borders into the openness and takes separateness and breathes a sense of unity into its lungs." greenarrowradio.com
"The one thread that seems to run through this disc is a blues drenched one: it is a sound and feeling that is universal to all of us that have suffered in some way. It is both humbling and triumphant and it embodies this music quite well." ~ BLG dtmgallery
"Music is the great healer and hopefully [Two Rivers] in some small way can bring different cultures together in an understanding that will benefit all." http://jazzandblues.blogspot.com/2007/11/amir-elsaffar-two-rivers-pi-recordings.html
"…a transcendent album that gets at what I think Coltrane was trying to achieve in his late music, spiritual release through music. ElSaffar has channeled his muse and recorded one of the best albums of the year."
~ Lester A. French Jr. WMEB, 91.9 FM, Orono, ME
"[an] enchanting and captivating soundscape which digs deep, both in terms of tradition as well as instrumental nuance and skill…When one hears the terms 'ethno-jazz' or 'world-jazz' it tends to bring to mind distilled and languid jazz-lite which is given away with new-age magazines. Instead, ElSaffar and his merry men bring a real sense of authenticity…"
http://www.experimusic.com/jazzreviews-amir.htm
"ancient Iraqi scales (maqams) meet boppish modes and rhythms, a subtle nod to the way the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run parallel through Iraq and then converge" ~ K. Leander Williams, TimeOut NY
"daring new music…" ~ Global Rhythm
"…an excellent synthesis of the instrumentation (like the buzuq, dumbek, and oud) and stylistic elements of the maqam form and those of modern jazz. The resultant music is what one might expect/hope for: an organic, flowing, Middle Eastern-influenced style of ethno-jazz…Genre-blurring, innovative, and well-executed…" ~ Daryl Licht, http://spidey.kfjc.org/?p=2722
"…the vital and versatile Arabic styles flow cleanly into the open embrace of American free jazz, and the seamlessness with which ElSaffar and his collaborators blend the two allows the listeners to focus on the content and intention of his music, rather than the logistics of it.
The opening track, "Menba'/Jourjina", sets the mood by immediately plunging the listener into a wafting melody that is shared as a common element among the instruments, yet seems to subtly shift in color and shape as each player grasps hold of it. The track also introduces some of the Arabic instruments employed by the group throughout the album, including ElSaffar's seventy-string dulcimer, the santoor, a distinctive hand-drum manned by Zafer Tawil known as the dumbek, and the lute-like buzuq played by Tareq Abboushi.
Though the Arabic themes are dominant on "Memba'", the recognizable hallmarks of jazz fade in and out of the background. They lightly touch upon the maqam melody until the band transitions into the next composition, "Hemayoun", in which the saxophone, trumpet, bass, and drums seize total control. Rather than shatter the mood, however, they decide to reinforce it by running with the rhythmic meter put forth by the Arabic instruments and shading it with the more familiar Western sounds.
This level of cooperation and interplay between the disparate styles is absolutely necessary, and ElSaffar's group does an excellent job ensuring that each of the influences effectively connects with the other. Similarly, the cooperation and interplay between the musicians, particularly ElSaffar's trumpet and the alto saxophone of Rudresh Manhanthappa, propel the album to such excellence.
On the climactic "Blood and Ink/Aneen", which meditates on the havoc wrecked upon Baghdad by Mongol hordes in 1258, the two flail wildly around one other, their instruments crying out and painting a rich portrait of the chaotic din that surely accompanied the event they depict.
To hear these sounds, both old and new, mixing together so comfortably and so powerfully is a tremendous pleasure.
Two Rivers goes a long way toward making the music of maqam approachable and comprehensible by putting it in context alongside more familiar jazz instrumentation and structures. The album works like a musical Rosetta stone; it provides
not just the means to understand, but a way to explore a deeper, fuller history than before, and most importantly, showcases the impressive talents of the artists involved in bringing this music to life." --www.PopMatters.com
"Two Rivers is, simply stated, a downright fascinating album from Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar...Modally speaking, the music here incorporates the musical spirit of the maqam, an Arabic musical tradition based on a unique system of modes and scales. The use of this system, which ElSaffar studied intensively throughout the Middle East, is the basis for almost all improvisation and composition on this album. Rudresh Mahathappa, a rising star in the New York scene, joins ElSaffar, but it is the trumpeter's ideas that guide the direction of the music. Instrumentally, the incorporation of the buzuq, oud, and santoor, an Iraqi dulcimer which ElSaffar plays himself, contributes to the celebration of foreign musical tradition. However, the band still pops and swings like an American group, and the combination of these various attributes makes ElSaffar's album a powerful listen."
~ Mike Szajewski, Director, WNUR Jazz Show, Chicago, IL
“There's something universally recognizable about an opening invocation. Centering around a drone note, a sense of warming up, tuning, intoning; all signs point to a beginning. Melody is emergent and seems to sprout organically from the primordial stew of sound. There's a beautiful mix of timbres and rhythms, with a relaxed intensity to the groove and the focus revolves around the orbit
of the singular drone. The album is called Two Rivers, referring to the historic tributaries of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the land
that lies between.
It could be considered politically relevant to make an album that combines the form and instruments of traditional Iraqi Maqam with the improvised spirit and instrumentation of a jazz combo. I use the word "could," because apart from the relevance of this meeting of musical traditions in today's world, there is a beautiful recording here with music that is pertinent and worthwhile listening.
However, to ignore the state of the world surrounding music is to perpetrate a great injustice to the relevance and agency of music to reflect, to create Utopian musical spaces where barriers are broken down, and to bring to the forefront underlying beauty that otherwise might be lost amongst violence and destruction.
There's a patience in the proceedings here that I find extremely rewarding as a listener. Tension is built and brought to peaks, but it is never in a hurry to do so, and the slope happens so subtly and gradually that it's easy to forget it's going somewhere until it has arrived. Amir ElSaffar's trumpet playing is fantastic throughout, utilizing scales and timbres that are certainly referential to the musical heritage of Iraqi Maqam while also incorporating the language and phrasing of jazz.
Santoor, oud, doumbek, buzuq, frame drum. Trumpet, alto sax, bass, drums, violin.
A meeting of musics. Can musics meet? What happens when they do? Do they shake hands, retain separate identities and commingle? Or do they do dirty things like fuse into a fusion? There, I said it. Let's be honest though, fusion is only dirty if jazz is fusing with profane musics like rock and roll or pop music. If it fuses with folk musics from around the world or other art music, that's perfectly acceptable. Right? Musics meet in individuals whose identities are able to span continents. It's interesting to note that the shifting of intervallic preference and timbre can lead to denotation of musical culture and locality.
Don Cherry once said: "When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them."
Amir ElSaffar, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Dafer Tawil, Tareq Abboushi, Carlo DeRosa, Nasheet Waits. It really sounds like a band, great chemistry and interplay, and everyone plays with bravado and gusto.
What good is a word like jazz if it can't let music like this into the shade of its stylistic tree? If it can't give shelter from the storm under its genre umbrella? In the liner notes, ElSaffar talks about similarities between the heterophony native to maqam music and Cecil Taylor's music. Cecil Taylor! Maqam! Heterophony! There's something going on there, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
Have I mentioned that this music is hip? Because it most certainly is. Khosh Reng features a groove in 17/8 that cries out to be danced to, joyously. Blood and Ink begins with a poem that is moving without knowing anything about its translation.
All in all, this is a great album from Mr. ElSaffar and his band and comes highly recommended. It's an album of music that spans borders, incorporates seemingly disparate elements that end up comfortable bedfellows, and comes out with an end product that doesn't feel forced in bringing it all together. The feat of apparent effortlessness is a cherished quality in the music I enjoy, and this fits the bill.” ~ Dan Melnick, from www.soundslope.com
"Amir ElSaffar, the Iraqi-American trumpeter...is a virtuoso on the horn, but also an imaginative bandleader, expanding the vocabulary of the trumpet and at the same time the modern jazz ensemble. Accomplished in the jazz and Western classical fields, ElSaffar has also immersed himself in the Iraqi maqam. Much as Vijay Iyer has done with Carnatic music, ElSaffar is bringing the maqam - the urban classical music of Iraq - into contact with jazz. At Makor (Oct. 5th), during the second month of FONT, ElSaffar played an extended work called "Two Rivers", signifying the Tigris and Euphrates but also the commingling of musical worlds. He began the set on santoor, a type of hammered dulcimer. For a time the group seemed physically split between East and West - with ElSaffar, violinist/oudist/percussionist Zaafer Tawil and buzuq player/pianist Tareq Abboushi on the left and altoist Rudresh Mahanthappa, bassist Carlo DeRosa and drummer Nasheet Waits on the right. Gradually the boundaries blurred; ElSaffar migrated to a standard trumpet and a cornet with a slide, to enable microtones. The music ranged from mournful rubato song to raging New York-style improvisation. Waits took to the mix of rhythms with relish and skill. When ElSaffar returned to santoor, he began to vocalize in authentic maqam style, to haunting effect." ~ David R. Adler http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=23619
"...when he picked up the trumpet (alternately, cornet) he was playing in the quarter-tone scales of traditional maqam. But that seemed to be a small point — it wasn't for effect or show, it was simply that he'd adapted his instrument to the needs of the music. Actually, the most noticeable aspect to his playing is his imperturbable sense of focus. There was a moment in one piece, a soft slow piece, when all the others fell away and left Amir by himself. He played with a quiet, airy intensity that not only quieted the whole band, but paralyzed the entire room. After about 30 seconds by himself he simply stopped. There was a collective gasp in the room that stunned. Beautiful. Also notable was how well Amir and Rudresh Mahantappa blended, both in tone and in pitch. Rudresh's solos took fire every time. Nasheet Waits was also outstanding, particularly on a tricky piece in 17 that had all the musos counting on their fingers." ~ Dave Douglas
Amir ElSaffar
Jazz Trumpeter
Composer
Iraqi Maqam Singer
Santoor Player
Praise for Radif Suite:
Chris Barton in The Los Angeles Times writes: A challenging but rewarding collection thick with ideas and inspiration,
the record shows how small the world of music can be, even while jazz's world keeps growing.
Nate Chinen in The New York Times Critic's Playlist pick: “Radif Suite” is the product of a companionably radical cultural exchange between Amir ElSaffar, a trumpeter fluent in the Iraqi maqam tradition, and Hafez Modirzadeh, a tenor saxophonist versed in the Persian modal system of dastgah. It’s an album rooted in theory...but its end result will ring familiar to anyone with a passing interest in the jazz avant-garde of the 1960s and beyond... the two leaders pursue the sort of brash polyphony once synonymous with Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, and now open for sharply rigorous adaptation.
Bill Meyers in Downbeat writes: The relationships that Amir ElSaffar and Hafez Modirzadeh have with the Middle East are simultaneously more complex and more natural than, say, Duke Ellington or John Coltrane's...The result is a sound that is inclusive and compelling.
Miki Kaneda in Dusted Magazine:
The album presents an ambitious project that investigates the possibilities of order and freedom in musical systems. Listening to Radif Suite quickly proves that binaries like East and West can only provide at most a limiting critical paradigm. What’s most exciting about this album of two multi-section pieces for a jazz quartet, is not the fact that it successfully fuses “East and West” — which, on its own is a well-beaten, tired artistic path — but the way it makes you hear the past differently."
Stuart Broomer in All About Jazz: "As impressive as ElSaffar and Modirzadeh are as soloists, it's the collocations that are most meaningful, achieving rare emotional impact as trumpet and tenor rise together to match a precise microtonal pitch or dovetail their lines in moments of collective flurry. What stands out most is the emotional depth: on ElSaffar's "Doves over Zion," the trio of trumpet, tenor and bass manage to evoke both longing and the moment of apparent union."
Hank Shteamer in Time Out NY writes: much of Radif Suite hinges on an especially playful brand of organized freedom, with intricate, folky themes giving way to scampering improv.
Free Jazz: "Radif Suite" is jazz in every aspect of the music, while at the same time opening new melodic and rhythmic possibilities of the Arabic and Persian music, but it's not a fusion, or even a blending of genres....[ElSaffar and Modirzadeh] are also excellent instrumentalists, demonstrating the power of pushing their horns beyond the traditional jazz sounds. A great album by two composers who clearly deserve more attention."
Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide: "...a stirring and inspired group, worthy of any accolades or praise one can muster in the creative improvised music world."
"ElSaffar’s study of Iraqi maqam and Modirzadeh’s expertise in Persian dastgah provide tools and inspiration for new melodic concepts and fluid, highly expressive approaches to microtonality that are remarkably in sync with 21st-century jazz aesthetics...Swooping descents, spiraling patterns, crying crescendos and sudden tempo shifts require a technically stunning cohesion from the horns. But it’s the natural ebb and flow, the speechlike quality of the themes, that sets the music apart. Amid the naked dissonance and prevailing abstraction, straight swing breaks out on “Facets Seven/Eight” and “Bird of Prey.” Slow movements such as “Facet Ten” and “Doves Over Zion” allow for a deeper look into the music’s inner mechanics."
David Adler, Time Out NY Link To Review
"unfamiliar intervals, whether bounding leaps or microscopic shifts, create harmonies that vibrate and shimmer, summoning a mood that's both joyous and sorrowful."
Peter Margasak, the Chicago Reader Link To Review
"The new album, which shifts between freely structured jazz and the soaring themes of some post-modern muezzin, has a sense of renewed discovery. At the same time, the band shows a restraint and focus found in some of the earliest free-jazz bands"
Neil Tesser, Examiner.com Link To Review
"ElSaffar and tenor saxophonist Modirzadeh lead a quartet that explores radical concepts in pitch, intonation, phrase and dissonance. Joined by bassist Mark Dresser and percussionist Alex Cline, this band takes us deeply into a place where jazz, Middle Eastern music and the avant-garde converge." Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune Link To Review
"[Radif Suite] has two primary qualities, one sonic and the other emotional. The configuration of the band, their sound and style of playing are consciously in the tradition of the classic Ornette Coleman quartet, as updated via Masada. ElSaffar and Modirzadeh are not aping that sound and style, though, they’re expanding the possibilities and actually getting closer to the roots...The key is not to think of being modern, but to being old-fashioned, via the blues. If Coleman has always been fundamentally a blues musician, than ElSaffar and Modirzadeh are as well, their blues just have a different location in the geography of the mind, in a place where the West and East meet as wary antagonists and partners in possibility. The horns here play in a highly vocalized style, making use of the expressive opportunities of microtonal intonation, the result being more of a cry than a shout. The sound of the band playing is fascinating; dark, soft, a little sour, the pulse moving fluidly through different paces, at times frenetic and at others still.
The changing treads and the cries at the heart of the music are the vehicles for the emotional expression. In this the music is as simply and honestly made as any can be. This is profoundly sad music and profoundly powerful in the strength and clarity with which it expresses itself. ElSaffar and Modirzadeh seem to be confronting the world they see around them and codifying their reactions to it. There is no interpreting of reality, no offering of blandishments, no attempt to change that world. It’s honest reporting, bearing witness, an incredibly heartfelt and complex expression of things that can’t be put into words. It is moving to listen to, but not sad, as the music is darkly beautiful and the sensation of hearing artists who have so much to say and do so with such unflinching honesty is thrilling. In the great jazz tradition, there is a constant sense of understatement, the idea that what could be said with a scream is instead said with a whisper. And rather than a scream being all there is, the whisper hints at many more secrets inside, just underneath and surface. The ear avidly seeks these out and also gladly follows at the pace ElSaffar and Modirzadeh set, as the music is so worthy of trust and commitment. A clear contender for one of the best recordings of 2010." --George Grella, The Big City Link To Review
“[ElSaffar and Modirzadeh] pair effortlessly on the epic Radif Suite, a stunning album neatly divided in two…it’s a surprisingly inviting
amalgam of influences, merging both Iraqi and Persian modal systems—ElSaffar’s maqam and Modirzadeh’s dastgah—into a continuous whole often free of fixed meter…Beyond the theorization, the music swings at its core; the two approximate a 21st-century update of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry’s classic interplay—re-creating slow-burning intensity, swelling in and out of various motifs or breaking into a ferocious groove …with drummer Alex Cline (twin brother of guitarist Nels) splashing color and consummate bassist Mark Dresser anchoring every pivot, the quartet adds a new chapter to the jazz tradition’s ever-evolving history.”
—ASK, Time Out Chicago
"What the two leaders accomplish here is no jam: It was a disciplined project where they not only plumbed the commonalities of jazz, Iraqi and Persian forms, but conceived their work in political terms. So the semitones represent what internationally rooted ethnomusicologist Modirzadeh calls a "dis-integrative" break with "colonized temperaments," through which the musicians can present themselves as "fully human." At one time that might've sounded like militant rhetoric; in the context of this music and today's enslaved world, it's a message for everyone, enhanced by a mood of mystical connection, breath and peace."
--Greg Burk, metaljazz Link To Review
“ElSaffar's melismatic trumpet lines conveyed tremendous lyric beauty, his phrases bending and twisting in ways that Western ears are not accustomed to hearing…[Danilo] Perez, [David] Sanchez, [Amir] ElSaffar and [Rudresh] Mahanthappa rank among the most promising figures
in jazz today, each redefining the music with cultural influences from around the world.”
~ Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune review of concert with Danilo Perez
“Music doesn’t get much more intimate than this. The hypnotic quality of Amir’s singing draws you in. When the song moves on, the rhythm kicks like a bracing splash of cold water. The last such episode inevitably ratchets up the speed and volume just a bit, to big effect.” ~Third Coast Digest (review of Present Music concert featuring Safaafir)
“Safaafir…presented a traditional maqam, lengthy and mesmerizing, its vocal line a melisma-filled ramble through poetic reflection and exuberant pleading. Amir ElSaffar sang as expertly as he played. This trio is an amazing combination of musicians.”
