Lewis & Clark College Music Department
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
and the Arab-American Cultural Center of Oregon
proudly present

Amir ElSaffar
Jazz Trumpeter and Ensemble In Concert
Sunday, October 26, 2008, 7 p.m.
Evans Auditorium, Lewis & Clark College

The Al Andalus ensemble of Tarik & Julia Banzi(Jazz-Andalus) will open the show.
See notes below.

Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar put his New York career on hold in 2002 to immerse himself in the music of his ancestry, the Iraqi Maqam. Already an accomplished jazz and classical trumpeter, ElSaffar has performed with artists Cecil Taylor, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, and Daniel Barenboim. He won the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet competition and traveled to Iraq, throughout the Middle East and to Europe, where he pursued masters who could impart the centuries-old tradition.

He quickly became versed in Maqam and found ways to adapt the microtones and ornaments to his trumpet playing. He went on to learn to play the santoor (Iraqi hammered dulcimer) and to sing, and he now leads the only ensemble in the US performing Iraqi Maqam, Safaafir. This ensemble has researched ancient practices that have been lost in recent generations, and is now reviving these sounds, continuing the legacy of the great masters of the Maqam tradition.

Two Rivers invokes the Tigris and the Euphrates, whose floods were forces of creation and destruction in the world's first cities. It recalls Iraq's history, glorious and tragic, and mourns the blood and ink streams that coursed through Baghdad after it was ransacked in 1258, ending its golden age. Two Rivers resounds with the joy inside the pain of the Iraqi heart.

Amir ElSaffar and his sextet, which includes Rudresh Mahanthappa (saxophone), Nasheet Waits (drums), Carlo DeRosa (bass), Tareq Abboushi (buzuq and percussion), and Zaafir Tawil (oud, violin and dumbek), meld styles and seamlessly cross-pollinate the languages of ancient and modern, East and West. Elsaffar's compositions are some of the first in the history of jazz to make use of Arabic modality and its non-western tunings.

Opening the show will be the Al Andalus ensemble of Tarik & Julia Banzi showing their jazz side (Jazz-Andalus). Tarik (oud, darbuka, ney) and Julia will be joined by Gavin Bondy (trumpet) and Martin Zarzar (drums). Gavin and Martin are perhaps best known through their long work with the group Pink Martini.

Tarik Banzi, multi-instrumentalist. Tarik traces his roots back to Al-Andalus, Spain (711-1492). He was born to one of the old Andalusian families in Tetouan, Morocco and grew up immersed in the Andalusian musical tradition. He later lived in Madrid, Spain where he studied Fine Arts and moved in flamenco and jazz music circles. While finishing his doctoral studies in Fine Arts, he was collaborating with flamenco and jazz masters such as Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlúcar, Enrique Morente, Jorge Pardo & Carlos Benavent. Tarik composes and performs on the oud (parent of the guitar), the darbuka (clay or metal drum), the ney (reed flute), bass, banjo and percussion.

Julia Banzi Ph.D., flamenco guitar, viola, percussion lived Andalucia, Spain where she studied flamenco guitar with some of Spain's finest guitarists including Manolo Sanlúcar, Isidro Muñoz, Felipe Maya, Juan Maya “Marote” David Serva & Rafael Morales. She is one of the few female flamenco guitarists worldwide. Julia and Tarik met in Madrid where they founded the Al-Andalus ensemble. Later, Julia immersed herself in ethnomusicology studies. She holds a Doctorate degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and currently teaches guitar at Lewis & Clark College & Reed College.

Mart'n Zarzar,drums, began to study drum-set and hand percussion at age thirteen, and his professional music career began at age fifteen in Portland, OR when he met the group Al Andalus, with whom he traveled, performed, and recorded. In 1996 he was awarded a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and he now holds a Magna Cum Laude Bachelor's Degree in Drum-Set Performance. He has traveled as a performer to Europe, Canada, South America, and within the United States, performing alongside Simon Shahin, Jamey Haddad, and Pink Martini, among others.

Gavin Bondy, trumpet, is native to Portland, Oregon. His versatility and love of music has allowed him to work with bands and orchestras in a great variety of genres including classical, rock, country, funk, American folk, big band, salsa, free jazz, mariachi, and middle-eastern music. In between Pink Martini shows, he writes, arranges, and performs for a group he founded, the Shanghai Woolies, a band of renegade rock musicians who play hot jazz

Tickets

Limited number of free tickets available to LC at the Music Department; ticket required for entrance.

Tickets also available to PSU students at the Middle Eastern Studies Center.

General-$15; Student/Senior-$10 at the door.

For further information, contact (503)725-4074.

Free parking on campus.