The American Sufi Music Project is an exploration and celebration of the connection between original Sufi compositions and improvised Jazz. Featuring readings of Rumi poetry and traditional Sufi dancers (Whirlers). This will be an evening of genres mixing, improvisation, and rhythmic music.

This evening’s music includes instruments from across the near east including Ney, Kemenche, Frame Drums, Fretless electric guitar, and U Bass. The compositions feature subtle ornamentation and striving improvisations. And with a touch of jazz, there is a sense of East-meets-West that contemporizes the music.

Based in New York City, the American Sufi Project seeks to transmit through music and art, a taste of divine love. The term 'Sufism' encapsulates hundreds of communities across the globe all united by a simple intention - to elevate consciousness, purify the heart and connect people with a greater love and higher power.

Tomchess: Multi-instrumentalist/composer Tomchess has played and recorded with some of the most esteemed players in the improvisational and Jazz scene (Dewey Redman, Butch Morris, Pharoah Sanders, Drew Gress, Ronald Shannon Jackson), as well as Morrocan Sintarist Hassan Hakmoun. Having deeply studied the Near Eastern, and North African traditions, his sound encompasses the tonal palette, rhythms, and forms of these traditional musics while never losing sight of his American roots and the importance and freedom of improvisation. He has performed around the world including at Lincoln Center (NYC), The Turkish Embassy, The Pakastani Embassy, the Asian Society, The Metropolitan Museum, and The United Nations, among others.  He has performed on NPR and PBS, has played on Grammy Nominated recordings, and has been nominated for an Independent Music Award.

Dan Kurfirst is an NYC based percussionist, composer and improviser. He has performed extensively in the New York City world music and improvised music scenes, and with groups around the world. Venues include The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Stone, Roulette, Alwan for the Arts, Nublu, Rabindra Sadan Cultural Center of Kolkata, Barbes and The Vision Festival. His debut album, Arkinetics, a suite of globally influenced rhythmic mantras within the electrified Jazz tradition, is slated for release on Neuma Records in October 2022.

Multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Marin has been called "a fretless guitar virtuoso whose microtonal adventures rival those of many eastern musicians, and with a talent for rhythm and nuttiness" (Bass Musician Magazine). He has also been called a "Master of the Dutar" by NPR. Gabriel has studied and performed music from North and South India, Iran, the Balkans, Turkey and Central Asia, as well as western classical music and avant-garde jazz. As one of the few players to explore the fretless guitar and MIDI guitar, he has found a truly unique and expressive voice. He is a founding member of internationally renowned fusion band Consider the Source. In addition to Guitar, Gabriel is versed in Dutar, Dombra.

Dancer Lale Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. She is a New York based Sufi dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator. She studied Sufi Dance with Paris based master teacher, Rana Gorgani  and Gorgani awarded her the international Sufi Dance Certification Of CID UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training.

Dancer Fanny is a visual and movement creator. She is a trained facilitator of Ritual Body Postures by the Cuyamungue Institute and is currently studying Yarsan Sufism and mysticism with Sufi dance master Farima Berenji.

Tomomi Kawai is a multi-discipline healing artist. She had been interested in creating a sacred space for people's prayers and developed her own way of making incense. Tomomi was one of attendances for Whirling Prayer that led by Lale Sayoko in New York City where she learned Sufi Dance. She truly resonated with Whirling Prayer experiences which she felt oneness, connecting with others and the Universe while whirling. Now she offers her incense to those prayer occasions. She appeared in the music video "The River in Heaven" as a whirling  prayer dancer. Her incense "QOI" has been featured at popup shops and other places throughout New York City.

This program is part of the Pittsburgh International Literary Festival (LitFest '22). Learn more about the LitFest lineup.