Amir ElSaffar - trumpet & vocal
Tomas Fujiwara - drums
Tania Giannouli - microtonal piano
Ole Mathise - tenor saxophone
Amir ElSaffar New Quartet documents the initial encounter between trumpeter Amir ElSaffar's trio, consisting of Tomas Fujiwara, one of NYC's most in-demand and dynamic drummers, and Ole Mathisen, a tenor saxophonist of unparalleled technique and versatility, with Greek pianist Tania Giannouli, a rising star who has headlined almost every major jazz festival and venue in Europe over the past several years.
ElSaffar’s nuanced and vibrant trumpet sound, rooted in Chicago school classical technique, combining subtle ornamentation and microtones of Arab Maqam with Jazz influences ranging from Miles to Woody Shaw, resonates throughout the session, guiding the new ensemble into unexplored musical territories. The music ranges from intensely quiet and nearly silent to ecstatic and declamatory, with the microtonal piano ringing ear-opening and beautifully unconventional harmonies throughout.
"an elegiac tone with ElSaffar's emotionally strident peals nudged into unfamiliar territory...with the piano's bell-like chimes in a complex microtonal web."
–The Wire
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AMIR ELSAFFAR
Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American composer, trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and modular synthesist working at the intersections of jazz, Western classical, and Maqam music of Iraq and the Middle East. He has been described as a “celebrated trumpeter and composer who explores vital connections between jazz and Arabic music” (New York Times) and is best known for his pioneering work combining jazz and Maqam, mainly through his Two Rivers sextet and 17-piece Rivers of Sound Orchestra.
As a jazz trumpeter, he has performed in the ensembles of Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Anthony Davis, Danilo Perez, William Parker, and Vijay Iyer, among others. He is also a renowned Iraqi santur player fluent in the millennia old and nearly extinct Iraqi Maqam, and is musical director of the last living vocalist of the genre, Hamid Al-Saadi. As a composer and musical director, ElSaffar has created works for symphony orchestras, string quartets, chamber ensembles, jazz ensembles, Middle Eastern music ensembles, as well as hybrid projects with Raga, Flamenco, and Sub-Saharan African trance music. His works have been commissioned and performed in major festivals and venues around the world. He is now working on an Arabic-language Maqam opera.
In 2024, he founded Maqam Studio, a performance and workshop space in Brooklyn, NY, and a record label, Maqam Records, with a mission of preserving and fostering the development of Iraqi Maqam and related practices.
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