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Gabriel Mark Hasselbach

About Me

My Jazz Story

Jazz is in my blood, and I am sure I will die clutching my horn to my chest. Piano seemed clumsy under my fingers when I was a kid, but when I picked up a recorder, and then a trumpet, it all just clicked. It really started in 3rd-grade summer multi-school band, and that year we recorded a vinyl record as a fundraiser, and there the die was cast. My private teachers and band directors were all working jazz musicians - some not even horn players - and somehow I absorbed the Jazz Spirit, which lives in me still, and has fueled the fire in my belly all these years. As a preteen and teen growing up in Denver Colorado, I'd listen under the bedsheets to late night jazz broadcasts on a 7 transistor am radio from New York, Chicago, and St Louis- made possible by reflections off the ionosphere due to the mile-high city's proximity to the same. At age 14 I was playing my jazzy style professionally in restaurants, lounges, and Battle of the Band competitions, and trying to emulate what I had been hearing. After high school, I hit the road playing mostly R&B, playing throughout the Midwest, and getting my schooling from older musicians who were kind enough to take me under their collective wing and show me how to get a musical message out there without alot of accompanying chatter. I started playing the flute at that time, searching for another sound to add to my creative toolbag. I had a five year run as a seminal member of the award-winning Powder Blues, received gold and platinum awards, and toured Europe, the US, and every nook and cranny of Canada. As a trumpeter, one is often relegated to being far down the call list, getting hired after the sax player, and only when budget allows. I always have been a self-starter, so I started to develop bandleader skills and began to create what is now called a 'brand'. I also realized there was nothing to parlay into a long-term career without using one's own name... My interest in graphic arts, audio, and video had developed alongside my musical skills, so recording and promotion became sort of a one-stop cottage industry for me to express myself without having to rely on major record labels and music managers. In the end, I created a large catalog and I own all my master recordings, unlike many major label artists, whose product is unavailable or can't be promoted for contractual reasons. My discography includes two mainstream jazz albums (even charting on JazzWeek), but most have been contemporary jazz works. I always wanted strong but succinct content to accompany funky rhythms, so both styles I pursue aren't really that far apart. That brings me to the present. Although I spend most of my time in Vancouver, I also work out of Phoenix and New Orleans where I have residences. Arizona has a few pockets of jazz activity, but the influence of the French Quarter unleashed a previously unrecorded creative flow in my jazz vision...... My live performances are a mix of my modern and vintage influences, with a nod to the magic and passion of classic cars, classic architecture, and classic movies that influenced me, and that have that timeless essence. This is the 'complete me', a seamless melding of mainstream, contemporary, and NOLA styles- a trifecta of jazz where the sum is greater than the parts!