Chicago area native, Amir ElSaffar has been working inside and outside the typical context of jazz since his Two Rivers Ensemble debut, Two Rivers (PI Recordings, 2007). The trumpeter and composer (and master santour player) has built a unique musical architecture based his study of the microtonal techniques of his ancestral Iraqi maqam. While ElSaffar was not raised with a strong sense of father's native culture, his own interest led him to travel extensively in the Middle East. His recent travels coincided with elements of the Arab Spring movements and ElSaffar found himself particularly influenced by the events in Egypt—where he had lived for a year—and had experienced the cultural turmoil related to the Mubarak regime and its troubled aftermath.

Crisis, the third release from ElSaffar's Two Rivers Ensemble, is decidedly more political in nature but treats the music with the same fervent enthusiasm as the group had applied to their more folkloric improvisational recordings. The more abstract elements that ElSaffar had employed on Two Rivers and Inana (PI Recordings, 2011) are circumvented as the emphasis here is on the dualism of purer jazz and authentic Arab styles of music. In this technique, ElSaffar creates a distinctive paradigm.

The intent of Crisis is not in any way veiled. Following the brief opening "Introduction—From the Ashes," the suite moves into the "The Great Dictator" with its fluid themes that speak to both repetitive oppression and rare glimmers of light and hope. ElSaffar's solo trumpet improvisation "Taqsim Saba" relies heavily on maqam and Hijaz (a region of Saudi Arabia) influences. The quiet beauty of the piece bleeds into