Breaking the Fourth wall: Jon Hassell plays trumpet and mans the electronics on stage in New York, February 2009
DISCOVERING the music of Pandit Pran Nath was an epiphany for Memphis-born musician Jon Hassell. Introduced to the Indian classical singer by fellow minimalists La Monte Young and Terry Riley in the early ’70s, Hassell studied raga under Nath, adapting elements of the Kirana vocal style for trumpet. It led to Hassell developing what he called “Fourth World” music, a blend of traditional ethnic sounds and processed electronica. “It’s about making a beautiful shape in air,” he explained to All About Jazz. Hassell’s debut album, 1977’s Vernal Equinox – on which his trumpet and electric piano playing was augmented by Indian frame drums, synths and mbira – was its first manifestation. Brian Eno, who called it “music I felt I’d been waiting for”, became an instant fan, leading to their joint 1980 work, Fourth World, Vol 1: Possible Musics.