Curtis Hasselbring is a trombonist, guitarist and composer. Growing up in the midwest, Curtis relocated to the Boston, where he attended New England Conservatory and found himself immersed in a creative scene of like-minded musicians who channeled their love of a broad palette of genres into their musical language. After earning Masters degree at Rutgers University (M.M. in Jazz Performance), Curtis made his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. where he immediately immersed himself in the jazz, world and experimental music scenes. Curtis has performed and recorded with many artists including Medeski Martin & Wood, Slavic Soul Party, Matt Wilson, John Hollenbeck, Golem, the Either Orchestra, and Tom Harrell among others. Curtis appears on close to 100 recordings including four releases as a leader.
Mostly known for his trombone playing, Curtis has also played guitar since his teens and continues to freelance on that instrument playing in a wide variety of situations ranging from instrumental rock (with Chris Lightcap's Superette), Romanian music (with Sanda Weigl) to his own prog-surf trop-tronica band, the Curha-chestra.
Leadership
Curtis leads the group "the New Mellow Edwards", a quartet showcasing Curtis's unusual rock/jazz hybrid compositions and consisting of Curtis (trombone), Chris Speed (tenor saxophone and clarinet), Trevor Dunn (bass) and John Hollenbeck (drums and percussion). The group has released two recordings on Skirl Records. In 2010, Curtis, through a grant from Chamber Music America, composed and recorded "Number Stations" featuring the New Mellow Edwards plus Mary Halvorson, Matt Moran and Satoshi Takeishi. That recording was released in 2013 on Cuneiform. Curtis has also co-lead a big band with Andrew D'Angelo, and leads a quartet called "Decoupage" featuring Mary Halvorson, Matt Moran and Satoshi Takeishi.
Composer/Arranger
Since his teens, Curtis has been composing music. Starting off primarily composing in the jazz idiom, he developed his passion as a composer by writing music for the Either Orchestra, an adventurous ten-piece big band that he was a member of when he was based in Boston (1986-1991). Since then, Curtis has composed a large body of works including a trove of big band music, a series of trombone quartets, a plethora of small group-based jazz pieces and varied chamber music including a suite for wind ensemble and a quintet for trumpet and strings. His music has also been recorded by other groups including the Either Orchestra, Chris Lightcap's Superette, Jerry Granelli and the TilT Brass Ensemble. Most recently, Curtis has been involved as an arranger in the Ghost Train Orchestra's "Music of Moondog" project, including arranging a piece for the Kronos Quartet.
Curha
Curtis is also active under his nickname, Curha, making a combination of home recorded multi-instrumentalist/electronic music since 2000. He has made several remixes for Frank London and Slavic Soul Party in addition to a variety of EPs self-released on Bandcamp. In 2018, Curha's first full length, "I," was released on Chant Records.
Discography:
2018
Curha I (Chant Records)
Chris LIghtcap Superette (Royal Potato Family)
2017
Satoko Fujii Fukishima (Libra)
The Four Bags Waltz (guest appearance)
Curha The Logue EP (Bandcamp)
The Ghost Train Orchestra Book of Rhapsodies Volume II (Accurate)
2016
Banda De Los Muertos (Barbes)
Ken Schaphorst Big Band How To Say Goodbye (Jca Recordings)
2015
Ghost Train Orchestra Hot Town (Accurate)
Golem Tanz (Discos Corason)
2014
She and Him Classics (Columbia)
2013
Curtis Hasselbring Number Stations (Cuneiform)
Ghost Train Orchestra Book of Rhapsodies (Accurate)
2012
Ben Holmes Quartet Anvil Of The Lord (Skirl)
Eric Person Thoughts on God (Distinction)
2011
Curha Selected C-Sides (B.L.I.M.)
The Spokes Not So Fast (Strudelmedia)
Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York
Eto (Libra)
Satoko Fujii Min-Yoh Ensemble Watershed (Libra)
Tilt Brass To Tilt: Volume 1
(Non-Site Records) (featuring the
Hasselbring composition "Revisitor")
Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra
Hothouse Stomp (Accurate)
Girls in Trouble Half You Half Me (JDub)
2010
One Ring Zero Planets (UrbanGeekRecords)
Sleigh Bells Treats (Mom and Pop Music)
Lycaon Pictus (Avant God)
2009
The New Mellow Edwards Big Choantza (Skirl)
Golem Citizen Boris (JDub)
2008
Gloria Deluxe Don't Must Whip 'Um
Beat Circus Dreamland (Cuneiform)
Slavic Soul Party Remixed (Barbes)
(features three Curha remixes)
2007
Satoko Fujii Min-Yoh Ensemble Fujin Rainjin (Victo)
Rob Reddy The Book of the Storm (Reddy Music)
Gogol Bordello Super Taranta! (Side One Dummy)
2006
The New Mellow Edwards (Skirl)
Golem Fresh Off Boat (JDub)
Satoko Fujii Orchestra NY Undulation (P.J.L.)
One Ring Zero Wake Them Up (Barbes)
2005
Gloria Deluxe Accidental Nostalgia
Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars
Carnival Conspiracy (Piranha)
Slavic Soul Party Bigger (Barbes)
Sam Bardfeld Periodic Tresspasses (Fresh Sounds)
(as a guest on the "megamouth")
2004
George Schuller Jigsaw (482 Music)
Golem Homesick Songs (Aeronaut)
Boban Markovich Boban Y Marko (Piranha)
(as a guest on one track)
Septeto Roberto Rodriguez Baila, Gitano Baila! (Tzadik)
Aaron Alexander Midrash Mish Mosh (Tzadik)
Satako Fujii Orchestra Blueprint (Natsat)
Club D'Elf Live Tonic NYC 5/26/04 (Kufala)
2003
Satoko Fujii Orchestra The Future of the Past (Enja)
Matt Wilson Quartet Humidity (Palmetto)
2002
Drazy Hoops Bring on the Hate (Slow Burn)
Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Brotherhood of Brass (Piranha )
Slavic Soul Party Live in Makedonia (Knitting Factory Works)
Sanda Weigl Gypsy Killer (Knitting Factory Works)
2001
EZ Pour Spout Don’t Shave the Feeling (Love Slave)
Ballin the Jack Big Head (Knitting Factory Works)
Cindy Hopkins Devotionals ( )
Satoko Fujii Double Take (Ewe)
Oren Bloedow and Jennifer Charles La Mar Enfortuna (Tzadik)
Club D’Elf As Above (Grapeshot)
2000
Frank Carlberg Variations on a Summer Day (Fresh Sound)
Satoko Fujii Jo (Buzz )
Drazy Hoops the Infinite Starlight (Slow Burn)
Dorgon y su Grupo (Jumbo)
Gloria Deluxe Hooker
1999
Tom Harrell Time’s Mirror (BMG)
Jerry Granelli Crowd Theory (Songlines)
Ron Sexsmith Whereabouts (BMG)
Brian Ales November (Intuition)
1998
Jazz Passengers featuring Deborah Harry Live in Spain (32 Records)
Jerry Granelli Enter, a Dragon (Songlines)
Satoko Fujii South Wind (Leo)
Ken Schaphorst Purple (Naxos Jazz)
1997
Bobby Previte Too Close to the Pole (Enja)
1996
Either Orchestra Across the Omniverse (Accurate)
Ken Schaphorst Over the Rainbow (Accurate)
1993
Medeski, Martin and Wood Notes From the Underground (Accurate)
Charlie Kohlhase Quintet Good Deeds (Accurate)
Benny Carter Harlem Suite (Musicmasters)
Ken Schaphorst Big Band When the Moon Jumps (Accurate)
1992
Either Orchestra the Calculus of Pleasure (Accurate)
Mandala Octet the Last Elephant (Accurate)
1991
Mandala Octet La Spada di San Galgano (Accurate)
Charlie Kohlhase Quintet Research and Development (Accurate)
Ken Schaphorst Big Band After Blue (Accurate)
1990
Either Orchestra The Half Life of Desire (Accurate)
Ken Schaphorst Big Band Making Lunch (Accurate)
1989
Orange Then Blue Where Were You? (GM)
Gunther Schuller Jumpin’ in the Future (GM)
1988
Either Orchestra Radium (Accurate)
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).