Jazz Articles about John von Seggern

About John von Seggern

Album Review

Jon Hassell: Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three)

Read "Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three)" reviewed by Maciej Stasiowski

by Maciej Stasiowski
October 6, 2026

When Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume One), Jon Hassell's first record in nine years, which was announced back in 2018, a new era in the trumpeter's career seemed to have opened. Furthermore, the LP came with its own methodology. The cut-and-paste retrieval of archival material overlaid with more recent instrumental parts promised a polyvalent and invigorating body of new work. The approach meant to evoke pentimento technique in painting--the bleeding-through of previous elements of the sonic painting onto the surface ...

Multiple Reviews

Bass Extraordinaire: John von Seggern / Bruno Raberg / Christopher Hale

by Doug Collette
October 23, 2023

In both its acoustic and electric form, the bass is too often overlooked in the context of musical performances both live and in studio. Yet it is this instrument that arguably confronts the greatest challenge of all in navigating arrangements and musicianship: specifically, to establish and maintain a middle ground of melody and rhythm that simultaneously serves the song, the chart and the players. Apart from a precious few high profile proponents of the instrument--Charles Mingus and Jaco Pastorius come ...

Album Review

Jon Hassell: Seeing Through Sound: Pentimento Volume Two

Read "Seeing Through Sound: Pentimento Volume Two" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
August 5, 2020

Visionary trumpeter-composer Jon Hassell presents another gift from his late career. The third release on his own Ndeya label, it follows the re-release of his debut album Vernal Equinox (Ndeya, 2020) and is a sequel to Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) (Ndeya, 2018). The structure is a bit different, still eight tracks, but organized as a series of Scenes. The personnel is more diverse as well. In addition to a core group of Rick Cox (electric guitar, bass clarinet, ...

Album Review

Jon Hassell: Seeing Through Sound: Pentimento Volume Two

Read "Seeing Through Sound: Pentimento Volume Two" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 13, 2020

By the time even the most radical musicians reach their ninth decade, few are any longer making cutting-edge work. But trumpeter, electronicist and composer Jon Hassell, a collaborator with Terry Riley and La Monte Young in the 1960s and the creator of Fourth World music in the 1970s, remains as venturesome as ever. Much of Seeing Through Sound: Pentimento Volume Two was recorded during the sessions for Hassell's lustrous Listening To Pictures: Pentimento Volume One (Ndeya, 2018). ...