News

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UPDATE! Beauty, featuring Gary Hassay, Dan DeChellis and Tatsuya Nakatani is out now on Konnex Records. The new cd has reached #8 on the top ten jazz list at WNUR. We would like to thank WNUR for the airplay and their support of our music.
The Live at WDIY album is officially out and available from Foreign Frequency. The album is a limited edition of 500 copies and includes a CD of the complete concert inside the record jacket.

Tim Blangger of The Morning Call has named To Be Free as one of the top five releases of 2006.

Konnex Records has released To Be Free, with Gary Hassay on alto sax and Paul Rogers on upright bass. For more information, please visit the Konnex Records website or see the Music page for details. How to edit this page

Drimala Records has announced the release of Tribute to Paradise, featuring Gary Hassay on alto sax, and incredible vocals by Ellen Christi. More information can be found on the Music page, or at the Drimala website.

Tribute to Paradise has reached #7 on the Jazz List at Northwestern University's WNUR, and #13 at UMass' WMUA. Thanks to Alan Lankin for including Tribute on his 2004 Honorable Mention list.

We would like to thank "Taran's Free Jazz Hour" on radio station Radio-G 101.5 Angers, France and "Beyond the Beyond" on radio station CHRW London, Ontario for their support of the TTP cd. Thanks also to Taran for the new website and for choosing Tribute to Paradise as some of his favorite music of 2005.

Drimala Records has also released "Radical Grace, Vol. 1". The best of Drimala Records 1998-2003. The compilation includes A Fork In the Road from Another Shining Path and Joe Knows from blackwater bridge.

Acoustic harpist Anne LeBaron arrived in Allentown to record a new CD project with Gary. The disc, released on Drimala Records (May 2002), is entitled "blackwater bridge" and includes sounds from a sound sculpture created by Harry Bertoia. Ms. LeBaron is internationally recognized as both a composer and an improviser. Westwires Recording USA is the co-producer and was the site for recording Gary's new disc.

"blackwater bridge" is "MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED" in Improvijazzation Nation issue #57, as well as the "PICK" of this issue for "best exploratory improvisation"!

The new cd has reached the top ten jazz lists at colleges and universities such as WPRB, WXYC, WCWM.

We are thrilled that "blackwater bridge" is on the 2002 Grammy ballot in the best jazz instrumental category!

We are pleased to announce that the CD, "Another Shining Path", was named "favorite disc of 1999". Thanks to "The Jazz Trip" on KWVA for their wonderful support of “Another Shining Path”.

Also, the ASP (Ye Ren) CD received four first round qualifications for Grammy nominations.

Tribute to Paradise is a remarkably sympathetic pairing of one of the most innovative saxophonists working today with the exquisite ingénue of the vocal free form stage. On this recording, Ellen Christi and Gary Hassay create a sound stage that transports the audience to an otherworldly peace far above the daily mechanisms of living.

As with all of Gary’s music, there are multiple layers of meanings and forms. Is it perhaps coincidence that the three tracks dedicated to the late great master mouthpiece craftsman, Jon Van Wie, feature Gary without his alto and only his voice? I think not. There is a poignant irony in this, but that is a trademark of Gary’s music. To know his music, is to know him…. maybe, depending on how deeply one listens.

In total harmony with Gary’s concept, Ellen’s vocals are fearless. Few singers would even know where to begin styling off of Gary’s intricate phrasings, but Ellen not only knows where to begin, she knows where to lead, and just as importantly where to pause to let the music breath.

On Tribute to Paradise, Gary and Ellen have created a tribute indeed. But not in the literal sense. This music is a tribute to living without fear, without boundaries, and without the constraints of yesterday. A music rich with confidence and the promise of a new “paradise”.

9 tracks in 57 minutes.

Gary Hassay returns to Drimala Records with his new recording blackwater bridge proving (as if, after 1999's literally brilliant Another Shining Path, he had anything to prove) that he engages on the deepest possible levels in his musical interactions...probing and anticipating his partner's biorhythms with utmost sensitivity. Working this time with harpist Anne LeBaron, on Blackwater Bridge alto saxophonist Gary Hassay engages in a sustained tour de force over the span of ten separate compositions that bridge the gaps of much uncharted territory.
10 tracks in 64:23 minutes

More information on this release can be found here.

Tim Blangger is a music reviewer for the Morning Call newspaper, in Allentown, PA. When asked what his favorite discs of 1999 were, he wrote this list.

"Another Shining Path" (Drimala), Ye Ren

"Charms of the Night Sky" (Arabesque), Dave Douglas

"The Unauthorized Biography Of

Reinhold Messner" (Sony), Ben Folds Five

"1-2-3-4" (Arabesque), Ray Drummond

"Lotus Flower", Steve Turre

Another Shining Path has received four first round qualifications for Grammy nominations in the following categories:

Best New Artist....The Ye Ren Trio (Gary Hassay, William Parker, Toshi Makihara)

Best Jazz Solo...Gary Hassay for his soulful sax work in It Was Rich's Race
Best Jazz Solo...William Parker for his beautiful bass work in Ante Up
Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by an Individual or Group...Another Shining Path

Hampton, Virginia -- November 17th, 1999. Drimala Records is extremely proud to announce that its second recording project, Another Shining Path, with the Ye Ren Trio has received first round qualifications for Grammy nominations by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) in four categories: Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Group or Individual; Best Jazz Solo for Gary Hassay in "It was Rich's Race", Best Jazz Solo for William Parker's solo in "Ante Up", and Best New Artist. Many, many thanks to all of you that have supported us this year and for believing in music produced without compromise and sold only over the internet.

This 69-minute CD features Gary Hassay on alto saxophone, William Parker on bass, and Toshi Makihara on percussion, collectively known as Ye Ren. Another Shining Path documents the New American Jazz sound; rooted in the blues, vibrant, free, and continually moving forward.