Search - Jon Hassell :: Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street

Too Wonderful for Words

R. MARK Plummer | From the Former USA | 02/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been listening to Jon Hassell since the mid eighties and I think I have almost every CD he's blessed us with. I'll buy any new Hassell CD w/o hesitation as I did in this case and this one is a gem... It's been a while since he produced anything of this richness. All the classic Hassell trademark ambiance is here: the introspective smoky twilight atmospherics and fourth world textures... So, Hassell fans, don't hesitate this one delivers the goods and for those not familiar with Jon's music... take the leap and be prepared for a real musical adventure. THANK YOU MR. HASSELL!"

Review written by Jeff Meirs, Buffalo News

Nitya Nadesan | Mercer Island, WA United States | 03/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jon Hassell, "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In the Street" (ECM). If Jon Hassell did indeed set out several decades back to create an idiosyncratic strain of music that would fit neatly into no single category, he has by now succeeded. In a career that found him studying in both Buffalo and Rochester, traveling to India to fully digest the glorious micro-tonal intricacies of that country's music, earning both respect and scorn in the jazz community, and becoming a first-call for the more esoteric and discerning class of rock musicians, (David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno), Hassell has played by no one's rules but his own. If that meant delving into ambient sounds, or treating his trumpet to a lavish buffet of effects devices, or attempting to phrase his solos like an Indian Kiranic singer, well, then so be it. With "Last Night the Moon Came dropping Its Clothes In the Street," Hassell and his band, Maarifa Street, delve into a protean, constantly morphing melange of sound. Far from formless and nowhere near "new age," the group weaves a dreamy tapestry of sound assimilating African, Indian and American forms, all presented with a serial composer's conception of time and space. Hassell in fact studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and the late Stockhausen's tendency to create scenarios of "controlled randomness" in his pieces hangs above Hassell and company's efforts here. This is beautiful, evocative, often transcendent music, but most importantly, it's also substantive; though he's been accused of merely doodling in the dippy ooze of new age music, Hassell is in fact a radical who can be seen to have carried on the work started by Miles Davis with the albums "In a Silent Way" and "On the Corner," with much more of an emphasis on the European influences than the African- American ones. You get as much out of "Last Night the Moon Came" as you put into the listening experience. It is, as the saying goes, a real trip. (Jeff Miers)

"

Maybe the best yet.

D. WISELY | DaleForce One | 02/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jon Hassell is one of a small handful of artists whose CDs I buy on the day they are released, without fail. Among the least strong of these CDs are those that have too little focus or nothing new to offer his fans. This new CD is perhaps the best ever and is certainly the best since 1986's Eno/Lanois-produced "Power Spot." As always, this whole record sounds like nothing else you've ever heard by anyone else and, in particular, the sound of Jon Hassell's trumpet is electronically processed, paradoxically, into sounding as natural and organic and soulful as one could hope for. He plays with remarkable restraint and there's not a touch of self-consciousness of the kind that often dogs experimental and "new" music. This is a terrific record by a master. I pray that he's a healthy 71-year-old because we need more from this astounding musician."