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Amir ElSaffar, top, Dena ElSaffar and Tim Moore play traditional Iraqi Instruments.
Iraqi-American Amir ElSaffar is a versatile instrumentalist who plays jazz trumpet and the santour (hammered dulcimer) and sings. His name may be familiar to some New Haven audiences, especially the city’s Iraqi refugee community.
The renowned musician and composer will be back in Westville this coming week with his Safaafir Iraqi Maqam Ensemble.
The ensemble will perform at a special concert event at Westville’s Kehler Liddell Gallery on June 27.
Amir ElSaffar.
In 2008 and 2011, ElSaffar (pictured) and his Two Rivers ensemble were featured artists at New Haven’s premier jazz venue, Firehouse 12. Last year, the group played the New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas at the Yale Law School courtyard. Commenting on that concert on the Arts & Ideas website, Willa Fitzgerald wrote: “Watching Amir ElSaffar and Two Rivers Ensemble was a profound experience. The ways in which ElSaffar and his ensemble married jazz and the Maqam tradition into a seamless narrative of music was captivating to behold.”
According to the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Maqam is “Iraq’s predominant classical music tradition, encompassing a vast repertory of songs, accompanied by traditional instruments. This popular genre provides a wealth of information on the musical history of the region and the Arab influences that have held sway over the centuries.” While this traditional genre of Iraqi music is beholden to a highly structured format of recitations, some improvisation plays an important part in delivering the melodies, rhythm and poetry that characterize the Maqam.
An accomplished trumpet player rooted in classical and American jazz traditions, ElSaffar set out from the U.S. in 2002 to learn the vocal and instrumental traditions of the Iraqi Maqam in travels that took him to Iraq, throughout the Middle East and Europe. It was during this musical odyssey that he not only learned to sing the Maqam, but also to play the santour, a 96-stringed hammered dulcimer and an instrument central to Iraqi culture.
In addition to ElSaffar, the Kehler Liddell performance will also feature his sister, Dena ElSaffar, playing the jowza, a bowed spike fiddle, and brother-in-law, Tim Moore, playing the dumek, or goblet drum. Video interviews with Safaafir members can be seen on YouTube, along with a selection of previous concerts. Together, the group represents the only “Chalgi” (an ensemble that performs the Maqam) performing in the United States. The music is seasoned with unique nuances and innovations made possible through Saffafir’s grounding in traditional music modalities coupled with modern sensibilities. The gallery performance, priced at $10 for the general public, is free for the Iraqi refugee community residing in New Haven. The fee for non-refugees is a small help in covering the group’s expenses associated with travel from New York.
Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services (IRIS) in New Haven, said the number of Iraqi refugees residing in the city is relatively small. The agency has resettled between 250 and 300 Iraqi refugees since 2007. George said the Iraqi refugee community had been treated to an ElSaffar concert several years ago and will be looking forward to reconnecting with their cultural traditions at the upcoming concert.
The IRIS agency resettles about 200 refugees each year, with about half of the clients coming from war-torn Iraq. It is funded in part by the U.S. Departments of State and Health and Human Services, Episcopal Migration Services, the Connecticut Department of Social Services, and various foundations, churches, synagogues and businesses. Private and individual contributions are also critical in providing an array of services to asylees, immigrants and refugees. “One cannot find a better foreign policy program than the one provided by IRIS, except for maybe the Peace Corps,” said George.
Wood sculpture by Susan Clinard of Kehler Liddell Gallery, the producer of the concert.
One might make a similar claim about Kehler Liddell Gallery in terms of its outreach and programing in building bridges of understanding among cultures and communities both far and near. Sculptor Susan Clinard, one of the Kehler Lidell Gallery artists who maintains close ties with the Iraqi community in New Haven, was responsible for coordinating the upcoming concert. Her connection to ElSaffar, she said, “is a mutual interest in the Iraqi community” and that “we are both interested in the human condition” — facts evident in the work of these two superlative artists.