Hafez Modirzadeh - In Convergence Liberation

Hafez Modirzadeh

In Convergence Liberation

Pi Recordings

Hafez Modirzadeh - Saxophones, flute, clarinet, percussion

ETHEL - Cornelius Dufollo: violin; Ralph Farris: viola; Dorothy Lawson: cello; Mary Roswell: violin

Mili Bermejo - Vocals

Amir ElSaffar - Trumpet. vocals, sanfur

Amir Abbas Etemadzadeh – Tonbak, daf, dohol, bells

Faraz Minooei - Sanfur

Sometimes it takes a set of circumstances to make an album click. Driving home from work in the early evening after an exhausting week, I put on In Convergence Liberation and let it take me where it wanted to go.

Something about the solemn melody of the opening track, La Angustia de Los Amantes (“Lover’s Agony”) and Mili Bermejo’s soulful rendition in Spanish of a 13th century Persian poem made a connection with me, speaking some truths about life’s struggles, breaking through barriers of culture and language. It transported me out of that specific time and place, and gave me a perspective beyond my immediate concerns. I suppose that’s one of the main reasons we listen to music.

With In Convergence Liberation, Hafez Modirzadeh has accomplished an extremely skillful blending of jazz, avant-garde classical, and Persian as well as Iberian music. The record proved somewhat difficult to wrap my head around, and write about, because with its diversity of approaches and instrumentation, along with its length over 18 tracks, Liberation at first sounds like two or even three different albums.

It was when I began focusing on the strings that I realized that they serve as the unifying thread throughout the record. Far from a “reeds with stings” date, the writing for the ETHEL string quartet is complex and deftly woven into each piece. In fact, the 4-part Suite Compost solely featuring the quartet is one of the highlights of the entire album.

In addition to the strings, Modirzadeh blends his reeds, the trumpet of Amir ElSaffar, Ms. Bermejo’s voice, and traditional Persian instruments such as the tonbak (goblet drum) and daf (frame drum) into a unified whole. Certain tracks, such as the aforementioned La Angustia bring more of the Persian musical influence, and others, such as Number That Moves featuring Modirzadeh’s plaintive alto, will remind one of Ornette Coleman.

Even with all I’ve described, I’ve barely scratched the surface of Hafez Modirzadeh’s musical world, which also includes gamelan music, motifs from Beethoven and string quartet music from Mozart to Bartok. Through all these connections, Modirzaheh makes connections with life, with the beauty in art and with the human experience that connects us all.

Here's a performance of Number That Moves, excerpted from a July, 2011 performance in San Francisco with ETHEL and Amir Abbas Etemadzadeh: