Fusing jazz with Arabic music is nothing new. Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem’s 2017 album Blue Maqams was one such triumph. British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed employs a quarter-tone flugelhorn to access Arabic scales. Now we can add Iraqi-American multi-instrumentalist Amir ElSaffar to this illustrious list. On this sumptuous collaboration with Italian electronicist Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, ElSaffar’s inspired approaches bring those two musical poles into thrilling proximity.
On the album’s opener, ‘River’, ElSaffar’s yearning vocalizations arise, sinuous, from a cavernous ambient wash, swooning into lachrymose microtones while buffeted by huge waves of gauzy electronics. Then, finally, a lonesome trumpet emerges, piercing the mist. This blends into ‘Spirits’, in which ElSaffar uses ingenious smears and slides to negotiate an Arabic maqam melody on the trumpet, at times sounding remarkably similar to trumpeter Lester Bowie from the avant-garde Art Ensemble of Chicago. As electronic judders crank up the energy, ElSaffar uncoils a virtuoso solo full of baroque intricacies.
