Alex Cline

Here is an item in Vinny Golia’s discography that gives a global sense to his life as an artist. Before being a musician, Golia was a painter. A very particular one, trying to translate to color what he heard in the music he liked most, from Varèse and Messiaen to John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

He’s been working since the eighties, but has until now escaped wide recognition. That could be because his home is Cork, Ireland, perhaps near in the heart of Anglo-Saxon culture but hardly a regular stop on the creative music circuit. Now, however, he’s starting to turn heads. In a flurry of activity starting in 2004, the guitarist has established his name in the jazz scene.

Radif Suite is an important new recording from trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh. The CD is a cross-cultural exchange between the Iraqi maqam, the Persian dastgah, and American jazz.