press
All About Jazz Review
Another Six Degrees Emerging Artist based in San Francisco, the Zaman8 duo of Sanaz Ebrian and Dan Newman (each contributing programming and production skills, plus Ebrian on vocals and Newman on guitars) also seem to examine Middle Eastern and electronic music in mutual contexts.
Newman’s father was a part-time musician and part-time film producer who produced the extraordinary, extraterrestrial Sun Ra biopic Space is the Place. “We do have strong influences coming from jazz, in particular the exploratory power of improvisation, which we’re all deeply invested in,” Dan says. “We want our music to have that intensity of a great solo.”
Adding saxophone and flute by Iranian-American instrumentalist Hafez Modir makes the melodies on Suryaghati sound somehow more personally communicative, Modir’s wailing sax passages somehow more like jazz - the tense past future sound of Pharoah and ‘Trane contemplating deep outer-space except with no type of accompaniment that Sanders or Coltrane could ever hear or see.
“Ketu” opens with a strong flute melody line (on Sufi ney flute) that stretches and doubles back upon itself as the remaining music, including the quaint yet exotic sound of African thumb piano, swims underneath in liquid watercolor. Modir’s soprano in “Sukra” and the cavernous dub-style “Sani” moans and dances in sweet pained tones that would suggest Grover Washington Jr. or other soulful R&B saxophonists if presented in such a setting.
Newman’s father was a part-time musician and part-time film producer who produced the extraordinary, extraterrestrial Sun Ra biopic Space is the Place. “We do have strong influences coming from jazz, in particular the exploratory power of improvisation, which we’re all deeply invested in,” Dan says. “We want our music to have that intensity of a great solo.”
Adding saxophone and flute by Iranian-American instrumentalist Hafez Modir makes the melodies on Suryaghati sound somehow more personally communicative, Modir’s wailing sax passages somehow more like jazz - the tense past future sound of Pharoah and ‘Trane contemplating deep outer-space except with no type of accompaniment that Sanders or Coltrane could ever hear or see.
“Ketu” opens with a strong flute melody line (on Sufi ney flute) that stretches and doubles back upon itself as the remaining music, including the quaint yet exotic sound of African thumb piano, swims underneath in liquid watercolor. Modir’s soprano in “Sukra” and the cavernous dub-style “Sani” moans and dances in sweet pained tones that would suggest Grover Washington Jr. or other soulful R&B saxophonists if presented in such a setting.