The Squid's Ear Magazine


ElSaffar, Amir / Hafez Modirzadeh: Radif Suite (Pi Recordings)

An important new recording in the continuing advancement of jazz from the trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Amir ElSaffar-trumpet, vocal

Hafez Modirzadeh-tenor saxophone

Alex Cline-drums, gongs

Mark Dresser-bass


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UPC: 808713003222

Label: Pi Recordings
Catalog ID: PI 32
Squidco Product Code: 12714

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2010
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Fantasy Studios, in Berkeley, California, on October 8th, 2009, by Gary Mankin.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Radif Suite is an important new recording in the continuing advancement of jazz from the trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh. The release marks the first exploration of the Iraqi maqam and the Persian dastgah in a jazz context. Both ElSaffar and Modirzadeh are of mixed heritage (Iraqi American and Iranian American, respectively) whose musical careers are dedicated to expressing their ancestral traditions within a highly personalized and creative jazz language. ElSaffar has spent years traveling abroad seeking out masters who could impart to him the Iraqi maqam tradition, and composed the highly acclaimed Two Rivers Suite, the first work joining maqam with jazz. Modirzadeh had spent years under the guidance of Iranian master musician Mahmoud Zoufounoun and has developed his own "chromodal" approach, which brings together Persian modes with jazz into one cohesive system. They are joined by world-renowned bassist Mark Dresser and master drummer, Alex Cline.

Both ElSaffar and Modirzadeh have invented new techniques for their respective instrument in order to play Arabic microtones and ornaments. By using alternate fingerings and masterful control of embouchure, they are able to break free of the boundaries of Western equal temperament into a new world of tonal orientation. This is innovative jazz in the best sense, using Middle Eastern music in a way to transform the idiom while still utilizing swing, driving improvisations, and a blues sensibility. In the process, ElSaffar and Modirzadeh are breaking down barriers and taking jazz to a whole new place."-Pi Recordings


Artist Biographies

"Saxophonist/theorist Hafez Modirzadeh has performed, recorded, published and lectured internationally on original cross-cultural musical concepts which include "Convergence Liberation" (in Critical Studies in Improvisation, 2011), "Compost Music" (in Leonardo, 2009), "Aural Archetypes" (in Black Music Research, 2001), as well as "Chromodality" (for Wesleyan University, 1992). Twice an NEA Jazz Fellow, Dr. Modirzadeh received a Senior Fulbright Award in 2006 to work with Flamenco and Gnawan traditions in Andalucia and Morocco, and again in 2014, to research Turkish Makam harmonization in Ankara. He is currently a Professor of Creative/World Music at San Francisco State University."

-Hafez Modirzadeh Website (http://hafezmodirzadeh.com/bio)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Alex Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American jazz drummer.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Cline began playing drums with his twin brother, guitarist Nels Cline, at the age of 11. Their first band was called Homogenized Goo and included David Hirschman on guitar. Alex Cline began a musical association with woodwind artist Jamil Shabaka in 1976 as "Duo Infinity". In 1977, he became a member of Vinny Golia's group as well as the Julius Hemphill Trio (along with Baikida Carroll), formed the electric improvisational trio Spiral (with brother Nels and synthesizer player and multi-instrumentalist Brian Horner) and began performing solo percussion concerts.

In 1979, Alex and Nels Cline, along with bassist Eric von Essen and violinist Jeff Gauthier, formed "Quartet Music", a group that enjoyed continued success in its performances and four recordings over an eleven-year period and was awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council.

In 1982, Alex Cline made his solo debut with Not Alone (Nine Winds), a double LP of percussion music. In 1987, he recorded The Lamp and The Star (ECM), his first album as a bandleader-composer. As the leader of his own group, The Alex Cline Ensemble, he can be heard on Sparks Fly Upward and The Constant Flame, two releases on Cryptogramophone Records, an LA-based independent creative-jazz label. Cline's other improvisational collaborations include right of violet and The Other Shore, both with Jeff Gauthier and ex-Shadowfax guitarist G.E. Stinson, and Cloud Plate (Cryptogramophone) with Stinson, vocalist Kaoru and koto player Miya Masaoka.

Other groups Cline has led are Alex Cline's Band of the Moment and The Rain Trio (with Eric Barber and Scott Walton). He has also been involved in duo percussion collaborations with Ron George, Peter Erskine, Christopher Garcia, Andrea Centazzo, Gregg Bendian and Dan Morris, as well as involved in performing the works of composers such as Robert Eriksson, Harold Budd and David Means.

Cline has served as composer and/or performer for numerous modern dancers and dance companies in Los Angeles, including Margaret Schuette, Linda Fowler, the Momentum Company's "Soundspace" concerts, Dance/LA, the UCLA Dance Company and has enjoyed a longstanding involvement with Will Salmon's Open Gate Theatre company.

He has participated in performance collaborations with visual artists Yoshio Ikezaki, Norton Wisdom, Kio Griffith and 2-Tu. He has worked on feature and cable television film soundtracks, done numerous sound workshops and percussion clinics, plus lecture-demonstrations on Asian metal percussion instruments. Cline has also been the curator of the Open Gate Theatre's Sunday Evening Concerts series, a new music/creative jazz showcase held monthly in Eagle Rock, California (since 1997).

He also works as an interviewer/interview series developer-coordinator at the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research.

Cline has played on over eighty recordings, and has worked with Gregg Bendian, Tim Berne, Arthur Blythe, Bobby Bradford, John Wolf Brennan, John Carter, Buddy Collette, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Vinny Golia, Henry Grimes, Charlie Haden, Joseph Jarman, Henry Kaiser, Yusef Lateef, Charles Lloyd, Myra Melford, Frank Morgan, Don Preston, Elliott Sharp, Wadada Leo Smith, Philip Gelb, Richard Grossman, and others."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Cline)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Mark Dresser is a Grammy nominated, internationally renowned bass player, improviser, composer, and interdisciplinary collaborator. At the core of his music is an artistic obsession and commitment to expanding the sonic, musical, and expressive possibilities of the contrabass. He has recorded over one hundred thirty CDs including three solo CDs and a DVD. From 1985 to 1994, he was a member of Anthony Braxton's Quartet, which recorded nine CDs and was the subject of Graham Locke's book Forces in Motion (Da Capo). He has also performed and recorded music of Ray Anderson, Jane Ira Bloom, Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, Dave Douglas, Osvaldo Golijov, Gerry Hemingway, Bob Ostertag, Joe Lovano, Roger Reynolds, Henry Threadgill, Dawn Upshaw, John Zorn. Dresser most recent and internationally acclaimed new music for jazz quintet, Nourishments (2013) his latest CD (Clean Feed) marks his re-immersion as a bandleader. Since 2007 he has been deeply involved in telematic music performance and education. He was awarded a 2015 Shifting Foundation Award and 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award. He is Professor of Music at University of California, San Diego.

- Website (https://www.mark-dresser.com/bio)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



Radif-E Kayhan:


1. Facet One 2:34

2. Facet Two 2:39

3. Facets Three/Four 3:22

4. Facets Five/Six 4:48

5. Facets Seven/Eight 5:42

6. Facet Nine 1:48

7. Facet Ten 5:49

8. Facets Eleven/Twelve 3:54


Copper Suite:


9. Introduction: Copper Refraction 2:24

10. Post-Idiomatic Blues/Cells A 7:33

11. Doves Over Zion (Dream of the Beloved) / Duet Interlude 5:19

12. Uganda / Trio Interlude 4:39

13. Bird of Prey 3:43

14. Awj / Ancestral Memory 5:08

15. 7 Quintuplets / Triptych / Bass Solo 5:23

16. All Said and Done / Sirens / Reverance 4:32

Related Categories of Interest:

Pi Records

Improvised Music
Jazz
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Pi Recordings.


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