Hafez Modirzadeh

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Hafez Modirzadeh (born May 3, 1962 in Durham , North Carolina ) is an American musicologist , alto and tenor saxophonist and composer of world jazz who works as a university teacher.

Live and act

Modirzadeh's father Jamal Modir comes from Iran and is a Persian percussionist; his mother has European roots. He grew up in the United States, but also in Montpellier between 1970 and 1972 and then in Tehran for a year . During his bachelor's degree in music at San José State University , he dealt with Afro-American music such as blues and jazz as well as the traditions of Iranian classical music . He received private lessons on the saxophone with musicians such as Sonny Stitt , James Moody , Joe Henderson and Sonny Simmons and with the Iranian violinist and tarplayer Mahmoud Zoufonoun , then he studied saxophone with Joe Allard and music theory with George Russell at the New England Conservatory in 1983 ; he received his Masters in 1986 from UCLA . In 1986 he received his PhD in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University on Chromodality and the Cross-Cultural Exchange of Musical Structure . In 1989 and 1991 he was a NEA Jazz Fellow; With a Fulbright scholarship he studied with Gnawa and Flamenco musicians in Morocco and Andalusia in 2005/06 , from which the album Bemsha Alegria (2007, Disques Chromodal) was created.

In addition, he pursued a career as a musician and worked a. a. with Don Cherry , Zakir Hussain , Steve Lacy , Oliver Lake , George Lewis , Peter Apfelbaum , William Lowe , James Newton , Wadada Leo Smith , Omar Sosa , Royal Hartigan , also with musicians from the Asian American Jazz Movement such as Fred Ho , Miya Masaoka , Liu Chi Chao , Danongan Kalanduyan , Mark Izu , Anthony Brown , Akira Tana and Kenny Endo . In 2007 he performed with Ornette Coleman at the San Francisco Jazz Festival . In 2009 he recorded his Radif Suite with Amir ElSaffar . In 2012 his album Post-Chromodal Out ( Pi Recordings ) was released, on which Amir ElSaffar, Vijay Iyer , Ken Filiano and Royal Hartigan as well as guest musicians played on the Santur and the Kulintang . Modirzadehs microtonal playing style is based in part on the Persian Dastgah -Tonsystemen and is influenced by Ornette Coleman.

Modirzadeh is a professor in the World Culture in Music department at San Francisco State University .

Works

Fonts

  • The Chromodal Approach to Improvised Music Spartan Books Press, 1996
  • Makam X: Musical Archetype of the People in: Fred Ho, William Mullen (ed.) Afro / Asia: Revolutionary Connections in Asian / African American Politics and Culture Autonomedia Publications. Brooklyn, NY. 2003
  • Aural Archetypes and Cyclic Perspectives in the Work of John Coltrane and Ancient Chinese Musical Theory , Black Music Research Journal. 22 (1) 2002
  • Spiraling Chinese Cyclic Theory and Modal Jazz Practice Across Millenia , Journal for Music In China. 2 (2) 2000

Discographic notes

  • In Chromodal Discourse (1993, Asian Improv ), with Royal Hartigan, Timothy Volpicella, Ken Filiano, Ramin Zoufonon, Sharam Kazemi
  • The Peoples' Blues (1996, X-Dot 25)
  • The Mystery of Sama (1998, AIR)
  • By Any Mode Necessary (1999, X-Dot 25)
  • Dandelion (2003, Disques Chromodal)
  • Bemsha Alegria (2007, Disques Chromodal)
  • Amir ElSaffar & Hafez Modirzadeh - Radif Suite (Pi Recordings, 2009) with Mark Dresser , Alex Cline
  • Bobby Bradford / Hafez Modirzadeh / Mark Dresser / Alex Cline: Live at the Open Gate ( NoBusiness Records , 2016)
  • Bobby Bradford & Hafez Modirzadeh with Ken Filiano & Royal Hartigan : Live at the Magic Triangle (No Business, 2017)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Howard Mandel : 2012 Top Jazz Beyond Jazz recordings
personal data
SURNAME Modirzadeh, Hafez
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musicologist and jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Durham , North Carolina