Fourth Landscape by Blaser Delbecq Hemingway

Since his 2007 debut as a leader, 7th Heaven (Between the Lines), Samuel Blaser has grown at an almost incomprehensible rate, from straight-ahead hard bopper in his mid-twenties to innovative free player and ever-searching composer and bandleader in his early thirties, one whose improvisational strength has received praise from sources like Audiophile Audition, citing Blaser’s music as occupying “ambient/free jazz terrain that has a depth of vision and clarity revealing musical maturity beyond Blaser’s nearly three decades of life.”

A dreamer and an adventurer in music, pianist/composer/producer Benoît Delbecq is a truly original pianist who merges such seemingly disparate influences as Gyorgy Ligeti, John Cage, Steve Lacy, and even electronica into a new and refreshing style. His music and projects include works for theater, dance, literature, visual arts, and motion pictures. He has released about 35 records as a leader or co-leader among a discography of more than a hundred discs.

Gerry Hemingway, now resident in Luzern, Switzerland, is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has had a long and admirable career, as he has been composing and performing solo, ensemble, and orchestral music since 1974. As bandleader, Hemingway has led various quartets and quintets since the mid-1980′s. He has also performed with the great Anthony Braxton, Ray Anderson, and many others. For nuscope, Hemingway previously recorded the challenging Subsymbolism (CD 1010) with Georg Graewe and Ernst Reijseger.

According to Marc Chenard, “…this music provides us with a fine example of the quiet intensity that Jimmy Giuffre heralded a little over a half a century ago as leader of that legendary trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow; this unit follows in their predecessor’s footsteps, not by imitation, but by reminding us that the best way to pay homage to the tradition is to create one’s own. And if genius is to be viewed as the sustained application of intelligence, this then is a most intelligent recording.”

Samuel Blaser (20 July 1981 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland) is a Swiss trombonist and composer.

samuelblaser.com
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