January 31 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Knox College YouTube Channel
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Beyond the Other Shore - Transcultural Music Making
Composer, trumpeter, santur player, and vocalist Amir ElSaffar has been described as “uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music,” (the Wire) and “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” (Chicago Tribune). An expert jazz trumpeter with a classical background, ElSaffar has created techniques to play microtones and ornaments idiomatic to Arabic music that are not typically heard on the trumpet. He is also one of the few musicians in his generation to master the centuries-old Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur (Iraqi hammered dulcimer) player. As a composer, ElSaffar has created a unique microtonal harmonic language that merges the Arabic maqam modal system with contemporary Western harmony.
His KeyNote talk on the Knox YouTube Channel will discuss the history of the Iraqi maqam, his journey with the music, how to hear micro-tones and how he has used the maqam to create new harmonies in the jazz idiom in works with his ensembles.
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