Jon Hassell
Good morning.
Today we’re listening to Jon Hassell, an American trumpet player and composer from Memphis. Hassell studied music composition in New York and Cologne, learning from avant-garde artists Karlheinz Stockhausen, Irmin Schmidt, and Terry Riley. In his solo work he incorporated global influences to play the trumpet in new ways over minimalist background. We’re playing 2009’s Last Night the Moon…, an outstanding album which Philip Sherburne noted draws from Miles Davis’ jazz experiments on Silent Way and Bitches Brew. Second we’re playing Hassell’s 1977 debut LP, Vernal Equinox, a classic ambient work on which his trumpet imitates the Kiranic style of singing.1 His pioneering 1980 collaboration with Brian Eno, Fourth World Vol. 1, is not currently widely available on streaming but worth listening to if you have the opportunity.
Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street - Jon Hassell (60m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Vernal Equinox - Jon Hassell (50m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
We wish you a great start to your week.
One of my all time fave artists. Saw him in 2009 (he and his band played "Last Night the Moon . . . " in its entirety), in an amazing venue, the Sydney Opera House. So sad he's gone, and I can only hope he's got unreleased material that we'll get to hear one day.