Facets Five Six - Music

Modirzadeh Hafez Aka Modir Saxophone Composer Educator Author B. Durham NC 3 May 1962. He Lived In Durham From 1962-67 And Marin County California From 1968-70. He Also Lived In Montpellier France From 1970-72 And In Tehran Iran From 1972-73. He Lived In San Jose California From 1973-83 When Finishing A BA In Music From San Jose State University. He Moved To Boston To Attend New England Conservatory's MM In Third Stream In Fall Of 1983 And Then Lived In Los Angeles From 1984-86 While Completing An MA At UCLA In Ethnomusicology. Moved To New York City In 1987 Attended Wesleyan University's World Music Program From 1988-90 In Middletown Connecticut Completing A PhD In 1992. From 1990-98 He Taught At San Jose State University's Improvised Music Studies Program And From 1998-2003 He Has Been Assistant Professor At San Francisco State's Jazz And World Music Program. His Mother Is Joan Quilter B. 1937 And His Father Is Jamal Modir B. 1935 The Latter A Persian Drummer. He Has A Brother Khayyam Modirzadeh B. 1961 And A Sister Leyla Modirzadeh B. 1967 In The San Francisco Bay Area From 1977-83 He Got Informal Saxophone Lessons From Sonny Stitt James Moody Joe Henderson Sonny Simmons Paul Contos Norman Williams. Since 1983 He Has Studied Persian Classical Music With Mahmoud Zoufonoun Violinist And Tar Player. At The New England Conservatory Boston 1983 He Took Formal Saxophone Lessons With Joe Allard And Studied Lydian Chromatic Concept With George Russell And Arranging With Jimmy Giuffre. At UCLA Los Angeles 1984-86 He Studied Ethnomusicology With Ali Jihad Racy And Nazir Jairazbhoy.
At Wesleyan Middletwon 1988-90 He Studied West African Music With Abraham Adzinyah South Indian Music With T. Vishwanathan And Ramnad Raghvan Japanese Music With Sumarsam And Conceptual Studies With Jon Barlow And Anthony Braxton. Modirzadeh Has Focused On Integrative Directions For The Practice And Education Of Jazz And World Music. On Both International And Local Fronts He Is Active In The Realms Of Performing Teaching Recording Publishing And Presenting Cross-Cultural Perspectives Regarding Musical Culture Tradition And Innovation And Individual Representations Thereof. Dr. Modirzadeh Received An M.A. From UCLA '86 And A PhD From Wesleyan '92 Both In Ethnomusicology And Continues To Develop An Interdisciplinary Musical Approach He Calls "Chromodal Discourse". From Tehran To Brown Universities Chromodal Theory Has Been Presented Within Both Musical And Scientific Academic Arenas Most Recently Acknowledged As A Formal Subject For The Doctorate Of Musical Arts By The University Of Madison Wisconsin Frey 2002 . Modirzadeh's Contributing Research Has Been Published In Such Journals As The Pacific Review Of Ethnomusicology 1986 Horn Call 1995-96 Music In China 2000 Ethnomusicology 2001 And Black Music Research 2002 . Over The Last Three Decades His Work On Saxophones And A Variety Of Other Reeds Has Been Documented On Dozens Of Creative Jazz And World LP/CD Releases Listed In The Penguin Guide To Jazz And In 1999 Contributing To A Grammy Nomination For Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra. Modirzadeh Has Appeared From The Berlin To Monterey Jazz Festivals And Has Performed With Such Artists As Omar Sosa Don Cherry Peter Apfelbaum Steve Lacy Fred Ho Zakir Hussein Oliver Lake As Well As Many On The Local San Francisco Creative Music Scene. Dr. Modirzadeh's Composed Works Have Been Supported By Two National Endowment For The Arts Fellowships '89 '91 Other Minds 1998 And The Djerassi Composer's Residency Program 2003 While His Educational Outreach Has Been Repeatedly Funded By California Arts Council Artist In Residency 1996-99 . Through The 90's He Coordinated San Jose State University's Improvised Music Studies Program Until Joining The Music Faculty At San Francisco State In 1998 To Develop Programs In Both Jazz And World Music And Dance. He's Married To Yeganeh Modirzadeh B. 1964 Tehran Iran And Has Two Sons Safa B. 1991 And Erfan B. 1993 . Recordings In Chromodal Discourse 1993 XDOT25 Jazz Sampler 1996 The Peoples' Blues 1996 Hafez Modirzadeh And Ramin Zoufonoun The Mystery Of Sama 1998 By Any Mode Necessary 1999 Arkadia Jazz Sampler Out And Out Jazz 2000 Dandelion 2003 As Sideperson Fred Ho We Refuse To Be Used And Abused 1987 Midnight Voices Midnight Voices 1991 Francis Wong The Great Wall 1994 Wally Schnalle It Rhymes 1995 Fred Ho Underground Railroad To My Heart 1995 Ann Dyer No Good Time Fairies With Hafez Modirzadeh 1995 Nathaniel Mackey Song Of The Adomboulou 1995 Fred Ho Never Give Up Monkey - Part One Part Two 1996-97 ZaZa Nights One And A Thousand 1997 Michael Brook Albino Alligator 1997 Miya Masaoka What Is The Difference Between 1998 Master Ron Lew Qi Gong Nei Gong 5 And 4 Separate Days 1998 Asian American Jazz Orchestra Big Band Behind Barbed Wire 1998 Karney Karney 1999 Ann Dyer Revolver --- A New Spin 1999 Asian American Jazz Orchestra Far East Suite 1999 Mark Izu And Circle Of Fire Threading Time 2000 Pearl Ubungen Tagulaylay 2000 Persian Pop Khatoum Barmigardam Zir Aseman-E Shehr 2001-2002 John-Carlos Perea First Dance 2001 Tim Volpicella Many Places 2001 Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra Monk's Moods 2002 Phoenix Spring Ensemble Desert Dreams Of Light 2002 Ian Dogole Night Harvest 2002 Royal Hartigan Ancestors 2003 Publishings/Papers/Honors
"Makam X Musical Archetype Of The People" Chapter In Afro/Asia Revolutionary Connections In Asian/African American Politics And Culture Ed. Fred Ho And William Mullen . Autonomedia Publications. Brooklyn NY. 2003
Djerassi Resident Artist Composition July 8-Aug 7 Woodside. 2003
"In Search Of Makam X Aural Archetypes In Asian Modal Practices" Paper For Symposium On Central Asian Music November 2 Stanford University. 2002
"Chromodality Revisited" Lecture Tour April 2-5 Boston - Northeastern Middletown - Wesleyan Providence - Brown Newark - Rutgers Universities. 2002
"Aural Archetypes And Cyclic Perspectives In The Work Of John Coltrane And Ancient Chinese Musical Theory" Black Music Research Journal. XXII 1 . 2002
Community Service Learning Development Award 2000-01 . San Francisco State University 2001
"Spiraling Chinese Cyclic Theory And Modal Jazz Practice Across Millenia" Journal For Music In China. II 2 . 2000
Book Review For In The Course Of Performance Studies In The World Of Musical Improvisation. Journal Of The Society For Ethnomusicology. XLIV 1 . 2000
"Spiraling Cyclic Theory And Modal Jazz Practice The 60-Tone Case Of John Coltrane And Ching Fang" SEM Conference Paper Nov. 20 Austin. 1999
"A Chromodal Approach To Geomorphology" With Dr. Ray Pestrong Geosciences Paper For The American Association For The Advancement Of Science June 19 San Francisco. 1999
"A Chromodal Model For Improvisation Studies" Paper For Interdisciplinary Symposium On Improvised Music April 10 University Of California San Diego. 1999
Artist-In-Residence Grant California Arts Council Lincoln High School San Jose 1996-99
"Chromodal Exercises For The Cross-Cultural Improvisor" And "Trans-Intervallic Exercises For The Post-Modern Improvisor" The Horn Call Journal. XXV-VI 1-3 . 1994-96.
"Out There Hafez Modirzadeh" By Gamall Awad California Jazz Now. III 10-11 . 1994
"Style And Structure In Iranian Classical Music" SEM Conference Paper Oxford MI 1993
Chromodality And The Cross-Cultural Exchange Of Musical Structure. PhD Dissertation Wesleyan University. Ann Arbor University Microfilms Inc. 1992
"Chromodal Discourse As A New Theory Of Cross-Cultural Musical Practice" SEM Conference Paper Chicago IL 1991
National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Fellowships 1991 1989
"Research Models In Ethnomusicology Applied To The Radif Phenomenon In Iranian Classical Music" Pacific Review Of Ethnomusicology V 3 . 1986
Miller Award Jazz Composition. University Of California Los Angeles. 1985 read less