Samir Zarif

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Samir Zarif (born September 27, 1980 in Houston ) is an American jazz musician ( soprano and tenor saxophone , composition , also vocals , electronics), who is also active as a music producer . Musically, he combines jazz traditions with modern varieties of rhythm & blues and hip-hop .

Live and act

Samir Zarif had his first music lessons from his mother, who is a piano and singing teacher. His sister Tahirah Whittington is a cellist; his late father worked as an accountant for both Malcolm X in Brooklyn and Nathan's Hot Dogs in Coney Island . Zarif studied violin in elementary school, violin and saxophone in middle school, and eventually saxophone at High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) and Willowridge High School. He later moved to New Orleans to study jazz interpretation and composition with the trumpeter and film composer Terence Blanchard at the University of New Orleans . In New Orleans he has appeared with Jason Marsalis , Aaron Neville , Nicholas Payton and Jill Scott . The first recordings were made in 2003 with Neil Blumofe ( Moses' Muses ), Jonathan Batiste ( Times in New Orleans ) and with Irvin Mayfield with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. After his undergraduate degree, he moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music , the subjects Jazz Studies and Saxophone Performance study.

Since then Zarif has been active in the music scene in New York and has become a renowned recording and tour saxophonist for many well-known artists and bands, including the big band Identities, The Story, Soulful Symphony , Chrisette Michele and Hans Glawischnig's Trio Jahira (album of the same name 2011). He has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall , Blue Note , 55 Bar and the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, as well as at festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Newport Jazz Festivaal . In 2010 he released his debut album Starting Point (Mythology Records) and from it the music video Keep the Faith , followed by Stereotype Threat . In 2011 he worked with producer Brian Lindgren and founded the electronic music producer duo Pax Humana , which released the albums A Matter of Heart (2012) and A New Frontier (2014).

He also worked as a producer of a series of short films by multimedia artist Donna Cameron , which were then presented and distributed by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Zarif also wrote music for the short film The Bronx Balletomane by Jeremy Joffee.

In the field of jazz he was involved in 16 recording sessions between 2003 and 2018, including a. with Jon Irabagon ( Outright! 2007), Miguel Zenón ( Identities Are Changeable , 2014), Mimi Jones ( Feet In the Mud , 2015) and Ryan Slatko ( First Impressions , 2016). Zarif worked with the formation The Story (with Lars Dietrich , Greg Ritchie , John Escreet , Zack Lober and Maria Neckam ). In 2018 he led a sextet with Edson Sean (vocals), Natalie Oliveri (vocals), Noah MacNeil (piano), Yoshiki Yamada (bass) and Dan Pugach (drums); currently (2019) he is also a member of the EJ Strickland Quintet with singer Aimee Allen .

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Samir Zarif. Smalls, July 1, 2019, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 6, 2019)
  3. ↑ Samir Zarif in the Internet Movie Database (English)Template: IMDb / Maintenance / "imported from" is missing
  4. ↑ review of the album Szarting Point at All About Jazz
personal data
SURNAME Zarif, Samir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (saxophone)
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Houston