At a time when there are more musicians in the world trying to be heard
than ever before, rare gems like Samuel Blaser seem, paradoxically, to
rise above it all. With As the Sea, Blaser's follow-up to his 2011
Hatology debut Boundless and featuring the same multinational,
transatlantic quartet - French guitarist Marc Ducret, Swiss bassist Bänz
Oester and American drummer Gerald Cleaver - he's already achieved a
rare prominence as one of his generation's most wildly elegant,
relentlessly forward-thinking and undeniably virtuous trombonists.
Since
his 2007 debut as a leader, 7th Heaven (Between the Lines), 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."
NY Times - Nate Chinen : ” An intrepid, Swiss-born trombonist living in Berlin,
whose new album, "Spring Rain", is a thoughtful and energetic tribute...
Mr. Blaser has a precise, expressive style on trombone and he's an ace
with multiphonic techniques, which enable him to growl chords on the
instrument...
London Jazz News : "Blaser's brightly textured brass sorties complemented French
guitarist Marc Ducret's tense, inwardly-focused passages that bled to
inaudibility as he turned off the amplification at one point, while
Danish drummer Peter Bruun maintained an upbeat range of criss-crossing
textures..."
Download the presskit below