FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The new recording MidCentury Modern Vol. 1 from Gabriel Mark Hasselbach is now out!
Four CD release shows including three during New Orleans Jazz Fest April 26, 27, 28, and at Blue Frog Studios Concert Stage May 11.
Stream or download sample tracks below. If you would like wav files or more tracks for broadcast please email info@windtunnelrecords.com
Mississippi Jump (radio single version):
Terra Firma Irma (feat Ernie Watts)
Blues On My Mind (feat Cory Weeds)
Gibraltar
Mississippi Jump (mainstream album version)
So What ... Now?
Liner notes from the Artist:
This is an exciting project for me because I was finally able to assemble my dream team. Besides the recognizable and prolific talents of saxists Ernie Watts and Cory Weeds, I was able to gather my longtime friends and world-class musicians Miles Black (piano), Laurence Mollerup (bass), and Joel Fountain (drums). Adding to the proceedings are Mike Taylor(vocal) and Olaf deShield (guitar) on a couple of tunes.
Jazz is in my blood, and I am sure I will die clutching my horn to my chest. I've been on this path for most of my life, which really started in 3rd-grade summer band. That year we recorded a vinyl record as a fundraiser, and there the die was cast.
My music teachers were all working jazz musicians and somehow I absorbed the Jazz Spirit, and fueled the fire in my belly that stuck with me all these years. I didn’t choose jazz, it chose me.
As a preteen and teen I'd listen under the bedsheets to late night jazz broadcasts from New York, Chicago, and St Louis. By age 14 I was emulating what I had been hearing, playing semi-professionally in restaurants, lounges, and Battle of the Band competitions. After high school, I hit the road, performing throughout the Midwest playing mostly R&B, and getting my schooling from older musicians who were kind enough to take me under their collective wing. I started playing the flute around that time, searching for another sound to add to my creative toolbag, and I put in some serious time on both horns.
I had a good five year run as a seminal member of the award-winning Powder Blues, received gold and platinum album awards, and toured Europe, the US, and every nook and cranny of Canada.
Trumpeters are often one of the last to get hired, so I took matters into my own hands and began to develop bandleader and promotional skills to create what is now called a 'brand'.
My interest in audio, graphics and video developed alongside my musical skills, so recording projects became sort of a one-stop cottage industry for me to express myself without having to rely on major record labels and music managers. In the end I developed a large catalog and I own all my master recordings, unlike many major label artists, whose product is unavailable or can't be promoted for contractual reasons. My discography includes two mainstream JazzWeek charting albums, but most have been contemporary jazz projects that have garnered quite a few Billboard hits. I always strive for strong, lyrical and succinct jazz content in whatever styles I pursue, and I choose sidemen that feel that way, too.
That brings me to the present. Although I spend most of my time in Vancouver, I also work out of Phoenix and New Orleans where I have residences. Arizona has a few pockets of jazz activity (and some great internet jazz station gurus), but the influence of the French Quarter in NOLA unleashed a previously untapped creative flow in my jazz vision, which is evident here.
MidCentury Modern is an homage to the magic and passion of the classic jazz, cars, architecture, and movies of the mid 20th century. Except for a few originals, I chose timeless crossover songs from my most influential trumpet artists. This album is the 'complete me', a seamless melding of straight ahead, contemporary, and NOLA styles- a trifecta of jazz where the sum is greater than the parts!