The double album New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal documents the first encounter between American trumpeter-vocalist-composer Amir ElSaffar (with Iraqi roots) and his trio -Norwegian-born tenor sax player and educator Ole Mathisen (the Director of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program at Columbia University) and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, with Greek pianist Tania Giannouli. The New Quartet had a mini-residency consisting of two rehearsal days, a concert, and an all-day recording session in September 2023 at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, a hall known for its phenomenal acoustics and legacy of its namesake, 20th-century pioneer conductor and composer Pierre Boulez.
ElSaffar is known for his nuanced and vibrant trumpet sound, rooted in Chicago school classical technique. He combines the subtle ornamentation and microtones of Arab Maqam with Jazz influences, as he already did with his Two Rivers sextet and 17-piece Rivers of Sound Orchestra. Giannouli, who plays a re-tuned piano to create microtonal sounds, explored a similar aesthetic with her trio, featuring Greek oud player Kyriakos Tapakis. The trio blurred the boundaries between Eastern and Western music, as well as contemporary, world, and jazz genres. Giannouli had introduced herself to ElSaffar in Brussels in 2018 after a concert of his chamber works, expressing interest in playing together.
The New Quartet was originally booked to play at the Pierre Boulez Saal in March 2022, but ElSaffar, who was already in Italy en route to Berlin, was infected with COVID-19. When the New Quartet finally convened, ElSaffar sat down with Giannouli for three hours, improvising, trying ideas and different modes on the microtonal piano, and most importantly, listening to her. On the same sleepless night, he wrote 12 pages of material, which he presented to the musicians the following day.
ElSaffar’s seven new compositions (with three more alternate takes) capture the magic of his music in front of a sold-out, appreciative audience. The New Quartet sounds like a working band with a profound, immediate camaraderie that enjoys the passionate urgency and intensity of a live performance and the joy of discovering the new material. Giannouli integrates naturally with the ElSaffar working trio. The recording also enjoys the great acoustics of the Pierre Boulez Saal, as the New Quartet stands in a tight circle encompassed by the 360° space.
But the performance also captures ElSaffar’s deeply moving, spiritual essence that allows his music to be vulnerable, compassionate, and exploratory (and one piece is dedicated to victims of genocide in Gaza). The beautiful, rich music flows organically. Its bass-less format explores nuanced timbres and harmonies, along with intriguing polyrhythms and grooves, affirming that jazz, in its deepest, inclusive sense, has deep roots in the Arab Maqams.
Eyal Hareuveni
Amir ElSaffar (trumpet, vocals), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Tania Giannouli (microtonal piano), Ole Mathisen (tenor saxophone)
