945 - John Balke "Siwan"

Tuchia
O Andalusin¡
Jadwa
Ya Safwati
Ondas do mar de Vigo
Itimad
A la dina dana
Zahori
Ashiyin Raïqin
Thulâthiyat
Toda Ciencia Trascendiendo

Amina Alaoui: vocal
Jon Hassell: trumpet, electronics
Kheir Eddine M Kachiche: violin
Jon Balke: keyboards, conductor
Helge Andreas Norbakken: percussion
Pedram Khavar Zamini: zarb

Barokksolistene
Bjarte Eike: violin, leader
Per Buhre: violin
Peter Spissky: violin
Anna Ivanovna Sundin: violin
Milos Valent: violin
Rastko Roknic: viola
Joel Sundin: viola
Tom Pitt: cello
Kate Hearne: cello, recorder
Mattias Frostensson: double-bass
Andreas Arend: theorboe, archlute
Hans Knut Sveen: harpsichord, clavichord

[...]

The focus of Siwan is not one of strict musical scholarship, but rather the imagining of what music would have sounded like at a certain place and time lost to antiquity. That time and place is medieval Andalusia, the southern most region of Spain, where Muslim, Christian, and Jewish intellectual cultures mingled unmolested before the Spanish Inquisition. Balke's studies of the history and writings of the region revealed a thematic universality among the Sufi poets and the Catholic and Sephardic mystics, a fact clearly evident in the texts chosen for this special recital: literary works as seemingly diverse as the martyred Moor Al- Aallaj's "Thualthiayat" and San Juan de la Cruz's (St. John of the Cross), ecstatic "Todo ciencia trascendiendo" ("Rising Beyond All Science").

[...]
Michael Bailey / All About Jazz

787 - Jon Hassell "Maarifa street / Magic realism 2"

1 Divine S.O.S. (Hassell/Freeman)
2 Maarifa Street (Hassell)
3 Warm Shift (Hassell)
4 Open Secret (Paris) (Hassell)
5 New Gods (Hassell)
6 Darbari Bridge (Hassell)
7 Open Secret (Milano) (Hassell)

Jon Hassell—trumpet, keyboards
Peter Freeman—bass, programming, percussion
Rick Cox—guitar
John Beasley—keyboards
Dhafer Youssef—voice, oud
Paolo Fresu—trumpet and effects
Abdou Mboup—original source drum performance on 'Darbari Bridge'

Œuvre mystique, onirique, dans le fil d'un parcours unique et immense, cet alboume nous dévoile des mondes cachés.
Fortement recommandé.

762 - Jon Hassel & Maarifa Street "World Cafe Live in Philadelphia 8 fevrier 2009"

Weekend Edition Sunday, February 8, 2009 - Trumpeter and composer Jon Hassell used to joke: "I do country music; it's just a matter of what country."

Or maybe it's a matter of what planet. Decades ago, Hassell coined the term "fourth world music" to describe his sound — one that evokes both the primitive and the futuristic. He continues to explore new sonic landscapes on his latest album, Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street. The title came from the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi.

"Rumi is sort of the beginning of the idea of Sufism ... and kind of a hippie, right?" Hassell says. "I mean, he was a — you didn't know if he was praising God or talking about a hot-looking girl passing by. So the title itself, Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street, has a combination of cosmic and a bit sexy."

Hassell is on his first North American tour in more than two decades. He spoke with Liane Hansen from WOSU in Columbus, Ohio.

Though first inspired by more mainstream jazz, Hassell has worked with electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen and studied with Indian classical singer Pandit Pran Nath. It helps explain his fascination with atmospheric electronics — and, he says, his soft, puffy style on the trumpet.

"I certainly started to play trumpet in a different way, drawing lines in space, musical lines, kind of Arabesque musical calligraphy," Hassell says. "A certain kind of curve where you touch one line but don't touch another, and touch this one lightly and touch that one more. Very beautiful and subtle."

Hear the full interview with Jon Hassell by clicking on the link at the top of the page, starting around noon ET on Sunday, Feb. 8.

Music interview

Jon Hassell - trumpet/keyboard
Peter Freeman - bass/laptop
Jan Bang - sampler/live sampling
Dino J.A. Deane - sampler/live sampling
Kheir Eddine M'Kachiche - violin

01. ba-benzele
02. abu gil
03. courtrais
04. last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street
05. aurora
06. north line
07. blue poles
08. open secret

743 - Jon Hassel "Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street"

Le retour du Maître.
Préparez-vous.
Il art-pente encore et toujours ces chemins défrichés il y a 25 ans.
Même sa longue absence s'inscrit dans ce parcours.