| Elsaffar, Amir / Crisis |
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| Album: | Crisis | Collection: | Jazz | |
| Artist: | Elsaffar, Amir | Added: | Jul 2015 | |
| Label: | Pi Recordings | |||
| A-File Activity |
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| Add Date: | 2016-06-06 | Pull Date: | 2016-08-08 | Charts: | Jazz |
| Week Ending: | Aug 14 | Aug 7 | Jul 24 | Jul 17 | Jul 10 | Jul 3 | Jun 26 | Jun 19 |
| Airplays: | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
Recent Airplay
| 1. | Jul 11, 2022: | Rebop Taqsim Saba | 4. | Aug 07, 2016: | K-Area The Great Dictator | |
| 2. | Aug 12, 2016: | Rebop The Great Dictator | 5. | Aug 05, 2016: | Rebop Floyover Iraq | |
| 3. | Aug 09, 2016: | DJ YJ's Cultural Tidbits: Iraqi Music and Culture Taqsim Saba, Love Poem (Complete), Aneen (Weeping), Continued | 6. | Aug 04, 2016: | Clean Copper Radio Floyover Iraq |
| Album Review |
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| Be Sharp Reviewed 2016-05-31 | ||
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WORLD JAZZ Another masterpiece by Iraqi-American trumpeter ElSaffar blending Middle Eastern instruments, modes, and this time Arabic verse, into a western jazz context. It’s sometimes challenging but always excellent. Instruments are trumpet, saxes, bass & drums, plus santur, buzuq, oud, and other perc. See the liner notes for explanations & English translations. No FCC issues. 1 Slow. Drum intro, trumpet blast, then peaceful strings. Vocal invocation. (4:54) 2 ** Mid-fast. Folk dance feel in mixed time signatures. Very compelling. (8:50) 3 * Slow. Sad solo trumpet improvisation. Quite beautiful. (3:17) 4 * Fast. Bass solo starts, drums join, then horns & strings. Certainly Middle Eastern sounding, but sort of fun and funky too. (8:18) 5 Slow. First half is delicate interplay of western and Middle Eastern instruments. Second half is a 13th-century Arabic love poem sung in a slow chant by Elsaffar. (7:05) 6 ** Mid-fast. Fascinating mashup of East & West. Highly rhythmic. (8:19) 7 ** Mid-tempo. Syncopated & tense. The “straightest” jazz piece here, but it still clearly references Middle Eastern tonality. Interplay between trumpet & perc is suburb. (13:40) 8 Very slow. Somber like a funeral march. Solo trumpet elegy & fateful drums. (3:36) 9 Slow. A reprise of track 5. Same melody. The complete poem rather than a part. (7:08) | ||
| Track Listing |
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| 1. | Introduction - From The Ashes | 5. | Love Poem | |||
| 2. | The Great Dictator | 6. | Floyover Iraq | |||
| 3. | Taqsim Saba | 7. | Tipping Point | |||
| 4. | El-Sha'ab (The People) | 8. | Aneen (Weeping), Continued | |||
| 9. | Love Poem (Complete) | |||||