Jamshied Sharifi

Artist Description

"Sharifi uses Middle Eastern rhythms and ideas as his framework to take his music to another place that exists outside geography...It's an example of the best worldbeat... Spiritual and haunting in the best way..."
-Chris Nickson, Amazon.com

While Sharifi’s initial focus in music can be credited to American jazz, it is his infusions of elements from the Middle East and Africa that make his music distinctive. He is an accomplished pianist and synthesizer player. Notably, Sharifi holds the synthesizer to an ‘acoustic’ standard and aims to play it with the detail and richness of articulation that comes naturally to an acoustic instrumentalist. To achieve this sound he uses a controller which allows him to manipulate the synthesizer with his breath. He combines this technique with a ribbon controller that allows him to bend the pitch smoothly and continuously with his finger. According to Jamshied, using both these techniques makes the instrument a “wind-driven, fretless synthesizer”.

His foray into the world of film and television began as a keyboardist and orchestrator for Michael Gibbs. Together they scored three feature films and fifteen one hour television shows. Sharifi went on to compose the soundtracks to many major studio and independent films including Muppets From Space, Down To Earth, Nickelodeon film Harriet the Spy and the Paramount/Nickelodeon film Clockstoppers, and contributed to the scores of The Thomas Crown Affair and The Rugrats Movie.