Two Rivers (2007)
ABOUT
Inana is the follow-up to trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s critically acclaimed Two Rivers Ensemble release, Two Rivers (2007), which Allmusic.com called “as impressive a debut as we’ve had in America in the 21st century.” While Two Rivers combined elements found in the modal music of the Iraqi maqam with the rhythms and aesthetics of modern jazz, Inana builds on those concepts to include a microtonal harmonic and melodic language, influenced by the pitch-flexibility of Middle Eastern music. The result is a new work that further expands the sonic possibilities of jazz.
The first eight tracks of the album make up the “Inana Suite”, named after and inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of carnal love and warfare. The CD cover features her name in Sumerian cuneiform script, and the eight-pointed star on the back cover represents her association with the planet Venus. Inana is a powerful and unpredictable deity, often creating chaos around her and disrupting the otherwise orderly pantheon of Sumerian gods. The suite attempts to capture the complexity of Inana’s spirit, and many of the compositions are inspired by specific myths or aspects of her being. The suite progresses from “Dumuzi’s Dream,” which directly combines jazz with maqam, to pieces not based on the maqam tradition such as “Infinite Variety,” which expresses Inana’s diverse character through six independent melodies layered in counterpoint. The work culminates with “Journey to the Underworld,” a composition in seven sections, each depicting a part of Inana’s epic tale that inspired similar myths in subsequent ancient cultures and remains a topic of discussion in modern psychology
“sincere and investigatory… ★★★★½” – John Corbett, Downbeat Magazine
“thoroughly engaging, sensual, and enlightening…★★★★½” – Thom Jurek, AllMusic
“The band navigates ElSaffar’s still-fresh fusion of jazz and maqam with such masterful technical power and vivid lyrical imagination that you almost immediately forget to be engrossed by the novelty of the sound.” – Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
“hypnotic and utterly unique” – Areif Sless-Kitain, TimeOut Chicago
“There are microtones and non-metered passages alongside Western harmonies and restless drum-set grooves. And somehow, it all just feels right. It can be solemn or frenetic, but these elegantly balanced tunes announce new possibilities in global jazz.” – Nate Cavalieri, Rhapsody.com
“elegant, meditative, refined, and musically adventurous” – Wanda Waterman, The Voice Magazine
“ElSaffar has with this recording established himself as a compositional force to be reckoned with.” – Thomas Stanley, Point of Departure
“Gracefully poised between two worlds, Inana builds upon ElSaffar’s previous accomplishments, establishing an impressive precedent for the creative possibilities of a new global jazz aesthetic.” – Troy Collins, All About Jazz
“ElSaffar’s studies in both jazz and ethnic music have placed him in good stead to carve out a unique place in the current improvised music. His music and musicial concept is clearly evolving, and this is a very exciting development.” – Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues
“★★★★” – Irish Times
“Amir ElSaffar is uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music without doing either harm…ElSaffar’s music [is] the result of engagement across the board, presented with clarity and eloquence.” – The Wire Magazine
“The fun the band is having is visceral: count this among the best albums to come over the transom here this year.” – Lucid Culture
“ElSaffar has been esteemed for a new methodology towards the much-maligned world music genre….[he] is a jazz musician first, introducing his ethnicity (Iraqi) as an integrated part of his aesthetic.” – The New York City Jazz Record
CREDITS
Amir ElSaffar, trumpet, santur, vocals; Nasheet Waits, drums; Carlos DeRosa, bass; Tareq Abboushi, buzuq; Zafer Tawil, oud, violin, qanun, Arab percussion; Ole Mathisen, tenor saxophone.