Label: Pi Recordings
Format: CD
Barcode: 0808713005127
Catalog number: PI 51
Releasedate: 22-11-13
Format: CD
Barcode: 0808713005127
Releasedate: 22-11-13
Alchemy is Elsaffar homage to standard jazz form as distilled trough his exploration of Middle Eastern tonai systems.
Elsaffar has developed with saxophonist Hafez Modizadeh a microtonal harmonic and melodic language that combines the pitch-flexibility of Middel Eastern modality with modern jazz.
Elsaffar has developed with saxophonist Hafez Modizadeh a microtonal harmonic and melodic language that combines the pitch-flexibility of Middel Eastern modality with modern jazz.
Alchemy is the latest chapter in trumpeter Amir ElSaffars continuing investigation into the tonal systems of Middle Eastern cultures within a jazz context. A recent recipient of the prestigious Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, ElSaffar has been residing mostly in Egypt for the last year, further absorbing the musical language of that region. However, unlike his three prior releases on Pi Recordings Two Rivers(2007) and Inana (2011), which relied heavily on the Iraqi maqam for their structural form and instrumentation; and Radif Suite (2009) with saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh, which utilized a musical system devised specifically for that group Alchemy finds ElSaffar writing for a standard jazz quintet with a sound distilled through his highly personal harmonic vocabulary, one that draws on microtonality and the maqam.