Live in Schaffhausen
1993 · Unit Records (2) (UTR 4054 CD) · CD Album · Switzerland
Michael Gassmann Quartet
Tracklist
- Campo15:18
- Ma Stella5:52
- Coins9:45
- Chez É11:41
- Inner Unrest3:36
- PreGig11:57
- Waiting3:28
- L'Heure8:38
Personnel & credits
- Thomas Schenkel (2)Bass
- Michael GassmannComposed By
- Lucas NiggliDrums, Cymbal [Cymbals]
- Mathias GloorPiano
- Martin PearsonRecorded By
- Michael GassmannTrumpet
About this record
Reception
No published critical reviews of this album were located. The release is catalogued on AllMusic (with a tracklist: Campo, Ma Stella, Coins, chez é, inner unrest, PreGig, Waiting, l'heure) and is available via streaming, but no editorial review or star rating could be retrieved. AllMusic, All About Jazz, and Discogs all returned HTTP 403 (bot-blocked), so their pages could not be read directly; web-search snippets of those pages showed catalog data only, not review prose. No coverage was found in Swiss/German/Italian jazz press (jazz'n'more, jazzthing, Concerto, Musica Jazz) or in Down Beat/JazzTimes. This is consistent with a small Swiss-label live debut: thin-to-absent critical reception is the expected outcome, and none should be invented.
Background
This is the debut album as leader by Swiss jazz trumpeter Michael Gassmann (born 1964 in Regensdorf, near Zurich), confirmed via Radio Swiss Jazz, antlitz.com, art-tv.ch and Van Laar Trumpets. It is a LIVE recording, made 20 May 1992 at 22:30 in the Kulturzentrum Kammgarn during the 3rd Schaffhauser Jazzfestival, and released in 1993 on the Bern-based Swiss label Unit Records (catalogue UTR 4054); the festival's own online archive (archivjazzfestival.ch) dates and documents the concert. The Schaffhauser Jazzfestival (annual since 1990) is a curated showcase of contemporary Swiss jazz "working bands," so the album effectively documents an early-career festival set. Quartet personnel per the festival archive: Michael Gassmann (trumpet), Matthias 'Thise' Gloor (piano), Thomas Schenkel (double bass), and Lucas Niggli (drums) — Niggli later becoming a prominent Swiss drummer/bandleader, which gives the date retrospective interest. Unit Records was founded in 1983 by Jürg Solothurnmann, Hans Kennel, Paul Haag and Urs Blöchlinger as a platform for innovative German-speaking-Swiss jazz. Tracklist (~70 min): Campo, Ma Stella, Coins, chez é, inner unrest, PreGig, Waiting, l'heure. Gassmann was reportedly mentored early by Enrico Rava (art-tv.ch portrait) and later recorded for ECM (as a sideman on Stefano Battaglia's 'Re: Pasolini').