Inana Pi Recordings****

Trumpeter Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American, an incendiary combination that has overlaid his jazz sensibility with an appreciation for the ancient musical culture of his father's homeland. His widely praised 2002 debut, Two Rivers, was the result of five years' study in Iraq and the Middle East learning the ancient maqamsystem, a microtonal language of melodic improvisation developed in Baghdad in antiquity which ElSaffar has adapted to the trumpet with remarkable results. The ensemble for this more-than-worthy successor features Arabs, Europeans, and Americans (including the much-admired Nasheet Waits on drums, who thrives in this cross-cultural environment), but the dominant flavour is Arabic with delicate oud(lute) and santour(hammer dulcimer) lines weaving in among Waits' jagged odd-meter grooves. The lettering on the front translates as Inana, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, in whom, presumably, all was fair. See amirelsaffar.com.