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Musician Strays from
Jazz for Iraqi Musical Tradition
by Joel
Rose
Morning
Edition,
July 7, 2006
· Amir ElSaffar put his
New York City
jazz club career on hold four years ago. ElSaffar, an Iraqi-American,
put down the trumpet to learn the centuries-old singing style known as maqam.
He has now released his own CD of maqam and is writing music
that blends the form with jazz.
ElSaffar
traveled to
Baghdad
and
London
to study what some call the classical music of
Iraq
from the masters. Before that, Iraqi music was not a big part of his
life. He grew up in the suburbs of
Chicago
, and jazz was his first love. After studying classical and jazz trumpet
in college, he moved to
New York City
and worked as a sideman for pianist Cecil Taylor and others. He also led
a band of his own.
Iraqi maqam is a
repertoire of melodies -- some of them dating to ancient times -- that
fit together into larger compositions. Texts range from secular poetry
to Sufi mysticism. The complex improvisations and vocal flourishes can
take years to master.
ElSaffar was
curious enough about Middle Eastern music to attend a workshop in
Massachusetts
in 2001. "They were talking about Egyptian music or Syrian music or
Lebanese music," ElSaffar says. "I was thinking, 'OK, where's
the Iraqi tradition?' I learned it was in many ways a vastly different
tradition than what is found in the rest of the Arab world."
Using $10,000 he
had won in a trumpet competition, ElSaffar sought musical teaching in
Baghdad
(he left a few months before the
U.S.
invasion in 2003) and
Europe
. He learned how to play the santur, a traditional hammered dulcimer,
and how to sing dozens of maqams.
ElSaffar
released his first CD of maqam in June, and has been performing the
music in the
United States
for audiences that include a lot of Iraqi expatriates. ElSaffar says
he's been amazed at the emotional response the music can generate.
" I've seen people get teary-eyed," he says. "I've seen
people cry at performances. People come up to me and say it's brought
them back to
Baghdad
. They can just feel the energy of the place again."
Now, ElSaffar is
trying to combine that energy with his first love. He is writing and
performing music that combines elements of maqam and jazz. Amir ElSaffar
and his band played his composition Two Rivers for the first
time this spring in
Philadelphia
. There will be another performance in October during the Festival of
New Trumpet Music in
New York City
. But first, ElSaffar is spending the summer in
Europe
, continuing his education. |