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Jon Hassell

 
Music Encyclopedia: Jon Hassell
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(b Memphis, 22 March 1937). American composer and trumpeter. He studied with Stockhausen and Pousseur in Cologne (1965-7) and in the late 1960s began performing with Terry Riley and La Monte Young. His works, some with Brian Eno, synthesize ethnic and electronic music. He developed a new technique for trumpet playing.


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Artist: Jon Hassell
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists
Jon Hassell

Similar Artists:

Kenneth Newby, Patrick O'Hearn, Michael Brook, Adam Rudolph, David Toop, David Torn, David Byrne, Popol Vuh, Djam Karet, Harold Budd

Influenced By:

Peter Gabriel, Terry Riley

Followers:

Loop Guru, Hal Willner, Vidna Obmana, Deep Forest, Eardrum

Performed Songs By:

Ronu Majumdar, Jim Keltner, Winter, Ry Cooder

Worked With:

Daniel Lanois, Naná Vasconcelos

Formal Connection With:

Brian Eno
  • Born: March 22, 1937, Memphis, TN
  • Active: '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: New Age
  • Instrument: Trumpet, Processed Trumpet
  • Representative Albums: "Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics," "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street," "City: Works of Fiction"

Biography

Trumpeter Jon Hassell was the originator and unrivaled master of the musical aesthetic he dubbed Fourth World -- in his own words, "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques." Born March 22, 1937, in Memphis, TN, he attended Rochester, NY's Eastman School of Music and Washington, D.C.'s Catholic University before studying in Europe under the legendary Karlheinz Stockhausen. After subsequent collaborations with minimalist pioneers La Monte Young and Terry Riley, Hassell mounted a number of solo pieces known collectively as the Landmusic Series; the most famous of these so-called "sound monuments" was 1969's Solid State, an electronic project that evoked the gradual erosion of sand dune formations via a tuned mass of vibrations.

Beginning in 1972, Hassell studied classical Indian music under the tutelage of Pandit Pran Nath, modifying Nath's vocal techniques to the trumpet to develop the Fourth World concept, which he introduced with 1978's Vernal Equinox. The jazz-inspired Earthquake Island appeared a year later, and in 1980 Hassell issued Possible Musics/Fourth World Vol. 1, a collaboration with Brian Eno. (A sequel, Dream Theory in Malaya/Fourth World Vol. 2, was quick in forthcoming.) Through Eno, he also began working with a series of experimental pop acts, appearing on records by Talking Heads, David Sylvian, and Peter Gabriel; in 1982, Hassell additionally scored Magazzini Criminali's Venice production of Sulla Strada, earning an Ubu Award for Best Music for a Theatrical Work.

Following 1983's Aka-Dabari-Java/Magic Realism (co-produced by Daniel Lanois), Hassell did not resurface on record until 1986's Power Spot; in the interim, he composed "Pano de Costa," a string quartet piece recorded by the Kronos Quartet for their White Man Sleeps LP. The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound followed in 1987, and that same year Hassell collaborated with the Burkina Faso percussion ensemble Farafina, a union that spawned 1989's Flash of the Spirit. The hip-hop-inspired City: Works of Fiction appeared in 1990, and four years later he launched Dressing for Pleasure; subsequent projects have included Lurch, an experimental dance piece choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek, and 1999's Fascinoma, on which Hassell collaborated with Ry Cooder and Jacky Terrasson. Hollow Bamboo was issued a year later. Hassell returned in 2005 with the release of Maarifa Street: Magic Realism, Vol. 2, which featured live recordings reworked and mixed with studio sessions. In 2009, Hassell released the much lauded ECM effort Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street, which once again featured material woven together from a variety of studio sessions. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Jon Hassell
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Jon Hassell
Born March 22, 1937 (1937-03-22) (age 72)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres World music
Instruments Trumpet
Website www.jonhassell.com

Jon Hassell (born March 22, 1937) is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.

Contents

Life and career

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Hassell received his Master's degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. During this time he became involved in European serial music, especially the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen, and so after finishing his studies at Eastman, he enrolled in the Cologne Course for New Music for two years (founded and directed by Stockhausen). Hassell returned to the U.S. in 1967, where he met Terry Riley in Buffalo, New York and performed on the first recording of Riley's seminal work In C in 1968. He pursued his PhD in musicology in Buffalo and performed in La Monte Young's "Dream House" (aka Theatre of Eternal Music) in New York City.

On his return to Buffalo in the early 1970s, Hassell was introduced to the music of Indian Pandit Pran Nath, a specialist in the Kiranic style of singing. Hassell, Young, Marian Zazeela (Young's wife) and Riley went together to India to study with Nath. His work with Nath awoke his appetite for world music, and on the album Vernal Equinox, he used his trumpet to imitate the vocal techniques of Nath (treated with various electronic effects) where he stated:

"From 1973 up until then I was totally immersed in playing raga on the trumpet. I wanted the physical dexterity to be able to come into a room and be able to do something that nobody else in the world could do. My aim was to make a music that was vertically integrated in such a way that at any cross-sectional moment you were not able to pick a single element out as being from a particular country or genre of music."[1]

In 1980, he collaborated with Brian Eno on the album Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics. Hassell's 1981 release, Dream Theory in Malaya, led to a performance at the first World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) Festival, organized by Peter Gabriel. In the late 1980s, Hassell contributed to Gabriel's Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ, the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's film, The Last Temptation of Christ. Hassell and Pete Scaturro composed the electronic theme music for the television show The Practice.

Style

Hassell coined the term "Fourth World" to describe his musical style, as expressed both in his trumpet playing and in his approach to composition. This musical conception combines the philosophy and techniques of minimalism with Asian and African styles, and relies heavily on the use of electronic instruments. Critics of Hassell's style have noted its incorporation of New Age and world music styles, but have also detected the influence of Miles Davis, particularly Davis' use of electronics, modal harmony and understated lyricism.[2] Both on record and during live performances, Hassell makes use of traditional western instruments—keyboards, bass, electric guitar, and percussion—to create modal, hypnotic grooves, over which he plays microtonally-inflected trumpet phrases in the style of Nath's Kiranic vocals.[3]

Discography

  • 1977 Vernal Equinox
  • 1978 Earthquake Island
  • 1980 Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics with Brian Eno
  • 1981 Fourth World, Vol. 2: Dream Theory in Malaya
  • 1983 Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism
  • 1986 Power Spot (produced by Brian Eno / Daniel Lanois)
  • 1987 The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound
  • 1988 Flash of the Spirit
  • 1990 City: Works of Fiction (All Saints Records)
  • 1994 Dressing for Pleasure
  • 1995 Sulla Strada (release of soundtrack from 1982)
  • 1998 The Vertical Collection
  • 1999 Fascinoma
  • 2005 Magic Realism, Vol. 2: Maarifa Street
  • 2009 Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street

Collaborations

See also

References

  1. ^ Prendergast, Mark J.. "Sound on Sound" (in English) (HTML). Jonhassell.com. http://www.jonhassell.com/soundon.html. Retrieved 11 August 2009. 
  2. ^ Mark Gilbert: 'John Hassell,' Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [November 7 2007]),<http://www.grovemusic.com>
  3. ^ Jon Pareles, "Jon Hassell with Trumpet and Electronics," New York Times September 21 1989: p. C15, ProQuest Platinum, Online (November 6, 2007).
  • Mark Prendergast, The Ambient Century. New York and London:Bloomsbury Publishing, 2000.
  • Jon Hassell, program notes from Vernal Equinox. Lovely Music, LML 1021, 1977.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jon Hassell".  Read more

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