Multi-reed player and composer Hafez Modirzadeh has been recorded on more than a dozen releases, including four under his own leadership: the seminal 1993 In Chromodal Discourse, the critically acclaimed 1996 The People's Blues, and his most recent, By Any Mode Necessary, all on the X-dot label.

Born in 1962 of an Iranian father and European-American mother, Modirzadeh grew up in France and the U.S., identifying strongly with blues and jazz as well as the rich traditions of classical Iranian music. His invention of the "chromodal" method allows for a nonlinear improvisational practice that is able to adapt to and incorporate multiple systems of music, permitting a cross-cultural "conversation."

He is a renowned scholar in ethnomusicology and professor at California State University in San Francisco, and is the recipient of two NEA Jazz Fellowships as well as an Artist-in-Residence Grant from the California Arts Council.