The Story
An inner voice, told on the trumpet
Michael Gassmann (*1964) is a Swiss jazz trumpeter and composer who has spent a lifetime turning improvisation into storytelling.
Born in a village near Zurich, he began playing trumpet at eight. His education was not always a formal one — he later re-learned the instrument as a young adult — but he was drawn early to music that breathed with improvisation. The discovery of the blues scale at ten opened a new world: he began to play things “not in the chart,” a small sacrilege in his surroundings, and never stopped.
After a first encounter with Enrico Rava in 1987, Michael turned toward his inner voice — contemporary improvisation rooted in the lyrical history of jazz, with Rava, Miles Davis and Chet Baker as guiding stars.
His Italian lineage, from his mother’s side, opened lasting collaborations with some of Italy’s most distinguished musicians — Stefano Battaglia, Claudio Fasoli, Roberto Bonati, Michele Calgaro and others — partners in a continuing quest for risk and story.
Michael can be heard on more than forty records, as leader and as sideman, on labels including Universal, Splas(h) Records, ParmaFrontiere and ECM.
