Rabble Without A Cause, September 4: Transcendent Trumpets
Featuring a reissue and new releases of atmospheric trumpet improvisations from Jon Hassell, Tomasz Stanko, Jake Baldwin and Palle Mikkelborg
Jon Hassell wrote and performed Amsterdam Blue (Cortège) for the film The Million Dollar Hotel, directed by Wim Wenders. The piece was recently featured at the Ferragamo fashion show and has been reissued. It has that distinctive Jon Hassell sound. We will start the show ironically with this piece, because Rabble Without A Cause is anything but fashionable!
Boundaries features eight improvised pieces by trumpeter Jake Baldwin, guitarist Zacc Harris and drummer Pete Hennig. Founded when the trio showed up to a recording session without a bassist, they decided to forge ahead with a more open approach. I hear echoes of Jon Hassell, especially in the use of effects and loops used by Harris.
Here’s a taste.
We will also hear a live recording of Palle Mikkelborg (trumpet/flugelhorn), Jakob Bro (guitar) and Marilyn Mazur (percussion). Strands was recorded live in early 2023, at the Danish Radio Concert Hall - although you don’t hear much audience reaction. The acoustics of the concert hall are amazing. Almost all the compositions on this album were originally recorded on Returnings (ECM, 2018), but the trio manages to say something new with this performance. George Cole aptly summarizes the music on this album.
The music on the album conjures up many words: fragile, textual, atmospheric, ethereal, spacious, light, airy, but definitely not lightweight.
George Cole, January 4, 2024
Appropriately for a September night, we will also hear the Tomasz Stanko Quartet in a recent release of a concert recorded in September 2004. The quartet is:
Tomasz Stanko, trumpet
Marcin Wasilewski, piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz, double Bass
Michal Miskiewicz, drums
Recorded at Munich’s Muffathalle twenty years ago, this previously-unreleased concert recording captures a developmental chapter in the music between the song forms of the Suspended Night repertoire and the improvised areas that the Polish musicians would explore on Lontano.
Though Miles Davis and Chet Baker were early influences, Stanko was soon drawn to the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. He became one of the leading jazz improvisers in Europe. He died in 2018. If you’re new to his work, Manfred Eicher put together a 36-minute tribute to him that serves as a good introduction.
You can listen to the show live in Ottawa at 93.1 on the FM dial, or online at CKCUFM.com. The show will also be available for on demand streaming.