Amir ElSaffar and Two Rivers
“Two Rivers”, combining jazz and modal music, was formed under the leadership of innovative jazz musician, Amir ElSaffar. The Iraqi-American trumpet player has played with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer and Daniel Barenboim, and won the 2001 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet competition. In 2002, he took a break from his music career and took a 5-year long sabbatical spanning Iraq, the Middle East and Europe in a quest for exploring his ancestors' music, particularly excelling on “santur”. Using his own unique technique, ElSaffar managed to produce intermediate sounds from trumpet which received wide attention from the world of jazz. All About Jazz mentioned him as “the most interesting piece of international jazz in the 21st century”. The "Two Rivers" project certainly deserves that level of attention.
Trumpet, Vocal, Santour : Amir ElSaffar
Tenor & Soprano Saxophone: Ole Mathisen
Drums : Nasheet Waits
Bass : Carlo DeRosa
Buzuq: Tareq Abboushi
Oud, Percussion : Zafer Tawil