Composer/trumpeter Jon Hassell is the visionary creator of a style of music he describes as Fourth World, a mysterious, unique hybrid of music both ancient and digital, composed and improvised, Eastern and Western. In the last two decades, his recordings, built around a completely unique "vocal" trumpet style (developed in studies with Indian vocal master, Pandit Pran Nath) have inspired a generation of his collaborators like Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Kronos Quartet and Ry Cooder. His trumpet show up on records of world stars like BjŠ¾rk, Baaba Maal, David Sylvian, Talking Heads and Ibrahim Ferrer. Film and theater credits include scores and performing for Wim Wenders'Million Dollar Hotel, The Last Temptation of Christ and many more. Born in 1937 in Memphis, he attended Schools of Music in Rochester and Washington, 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 Fourth World concept was 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. Following 1983's Aka-Dabari-Java/Magic Realism , Hassell did not resurface on record until the legendary ECM release1986's Power Spot. His 1999 acoustic, Fascinoma, produced by Ry Cooder, with bansri flute master, Ronu Majumdar and jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson, inspired a new generation of European trumpet players like Arve Henriksen, Erik Truffaz, Paolo Fresu and Nils Petter Molvaer. Hassell returned in 2005 with the release of Maarifa Street: Magic Realism. In 2009, Hassell released the much lauded ECM effort Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street.
