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| Born near Chicago in 1977, trumpeter/vocalist Amir ElSaffar is a classical and jazz musician of Iraqi heritage. He held a spot in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 1997-99, and in that final year, he earned a bachelor’s degree in classical trumpet from DePaul University and recorded with Daniel Barenboim and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for an album titled Tribute to Ellington (Teldec Record Service). After establishing a venerated career in New York, ElSaffar began studying the maqam modal structure in 2002, residing in Baghdad and London to engross himself in the Arabic musical system. Taught by celebrated maqam singer Hamid al-Saadi, ElSaffar performs the style vocally as well as on santur, the Persian hammered dulcimer. He leads Safaafir, the only US ensemble to perform Iraqi maqam, and he was commissioned in 2006 to create Two Rivers, a pioneering suite that amalgamates wild modern jazz with the traditional sounds of his ancestry. If he hadn’t done so before Two Rivers, ElSaffir now has a distinct compositional voice, using Two Rivers to weave different tonalities together with surprising success. Pi Recordings released an album of the Two Rivers suite in September 2007. (Scott Morrow) For more information, visit their website: http://www.amirelsaffar.com
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