AMIR ELSAFFAR
Amir ElSaffar – who leads five ensembles and has released seven albums over the past 16 years – has earned acclaim for being, in the words of All About Jazz, “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.” The Wire has described ElSaffar as “uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music… with eloquence.” The Chicago Tribune hailed the way his “melismatic trumpet lines convey tremendous lyric beauty,” adding that his transcultural innovations place him “among the most promising figures in jazz today.” ElSaffar – a 43-year-old Chicago native of Iraqi-American heritage – now presents The Other Shore, his eighth album and the second by his 17-piece Rivers of Sound orchestra. This moving, sonically kaleidoscopic album features an all-star lineup of players on instruments from East and West, with the performers improvising on the leader’s piquant, serpentine compositions: from the evocative curtain-raiser “Dhuha” (Dawn) to the ravishing “Medmi” (Epilogue). Belgium’s Outnote Records/Outhere Music releases The Other Shore, digitally and on CD, on September 10, 2021.
In the liner notes to The Other Shore, ElSaffar explains the concept for his large ensemble: “I formed the Rivers of Sound orchestra in 2015 as a musical, cultural and social experiment. The idea was to discover new ways of organizing sound without the hierarchical notions found in Western European art music (composer > conductor > players) and without the burden of precedence found in non-Western folk or traditional forms (relying on the past), but still maintaining a sense of structure and cohesion. I was interested in blurring spaces between improvisation and composition, between composer and players. The process relies on spontaneous group interaction, where each musician has agency as part of the creative process… Rivers of Sound is one of the most joyful musical experiences I have ever been a part of.”
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