Event Info
DOUBLE BILL AT THE CHAN CENTRE: Jon Hassell & Maarifa street and Dhafer Youssef
“It’s difficult to think what contemporary music would sound like without hi...
8:00pm
$52 adults/$47 students, seniors, Jazz Friends
Artists
Jon Hassell & Maarifa street and Dhafer Youssef
Event Description
“It’s difficult to think what contemporary music would sound like without his influence…there’s no doubt that Jon Hassell has had an effect on contemporary music as important as Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix or James Brown or the Velvet Underground.”—The Wire (London)
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 connoisseur recordings, built around a completely unique “vocal” trumpet style, have inspired collaborators like Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Kronos Quartet, Dhafer Youssef, and Ry Cooder. His trumpet work shows up on records of artists like Bjork, Baaba Maal, and Ibrahim Ferrer.
Hassell’s 1999 recording Fascinoma inspired a new generation of trumpet players like Arve Henriksen, Erik Truffaz, and Nils Petter Molvaer. In 2005, he began touring with a new band, which he named Maarifa Street, playing to new European audiences who were astonished at the discovery of this atmospheric music that defied categorization. In France, Playboy writes that “this celestial jazz is amazing,” while Der Standard in Vienna raved that his was “the concert of the year.” Last year Hassell reconnected with the prestigious ECM label and kicked off a major North American tour. This signalled the growing awareness of a master musician and a music without borders whose freshness comes increasingly into focus as time passes. With Peter Freeman bass/laptop, Steve Shehan percussion/laptop, Jan Bang live sampling/electronics.
“Music of such timeless beauty you can imagine it happening at any point over the last thousand years. It’s the sound of humanity that resonates within all of us; a universality that stirs something deep within that we never knew was there.”—The Observer
Tunisian-born, Vienna-based singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef creates music that is rooted in the mystical Sufi tradition but draws from different influences including jazz, electronica, and rock. With his deeply affecting vocal style, a poetic approach to the oud (the Arabic lute), spacey electric-lounge vibes, and variety of fusion sounds, Youssef is one of the most impressive voices to emerge on the world music stage. He has released four acclaimed recordings including the enchanting Divine Shadows (Jazzland), which Jazzwise (London) calls a “heady, enticing cultural clash…hypnotically sublime.” In a recent concert review, Straight No Chaser writes that it was “the kind of gig you watched and prayed would never end, charged with such magic that you knew you would be telling people about it for years to come.”
Venue
6265 Crescent Road
since 1997
In-Person Event
Sat. February 14th 2009 + Add to Calendar
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
