Samuel's Biography
Winner of the 2019 European Jazz Award, as well as the 2021 Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll (“Rising Star Trombone”), Samuel Blaser is a 21st century trombonist. Born in 1981 in the town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Swizterland, he emerged professionally after graduating from conservatory in 2002. During the next five years he developed associations with the Vienna Art Orchestra and the European Radio Big Band, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, pursued graduate studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, State University of New York, and recorded his first album as a leader, the Samuel Blaser Quartet’s 7th Heaven (Between The Lines). Since 2009 he has been based in Berlin.
The foundations of Blaser’s art are the breadth of his influences, his technical fluency, and the clarity with which he applies these assets. He grew up learning classical and Swiss folk music as well as jazz, and his projects include jazz-informed investigations of operatic, rock stead, and blues music. He understands that growth is relational, and has sought out and sustained relationships with veteran and senior musicians, such as Pierre Favre, John Hollenbeck, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ducret, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, and Daniel Humair, all of whom have helped him to develop his own sense of who he is. He exercises the full range of the trombone’s possibilities, including fluid melodic statements, emphatic rhythmic punctuations, earthy interjections, and abstract sound effects, with a clear sense of purpose. He approaches each endeavor as a leader and collaborator with a clear sense of purpose, knowing what he wants to accomplish and what each musical situation requires from him. Blaser’s responsiveness is never more evident than in his solo performances, which use his bold sound to draw out the qualities of both architectural and environmental settings.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced all musicians to suspend touring. But Blaser’s response illustrated another aspect of his resourcefulness. While he was off the road, he set up an internet label, Blaser Music, which issued its first four releases during the spring and summer. And as soon as Europe began to reopen, he returned to the stage, playing concerts with Samuel Blaser Quartet, Humair Blaser Känzig, and as a sideman for Michel Portal and Marc Ducret. As of 2020, Blaser’s projects include:
+Pierre Favre & Samuel Blaser
Pierre Favre was born in 1937, and has been an enduring figure in Swiss jazz since the 1950s. Samuel Blaser grew up aware of Favre’s work at home and with the larger European scene. When he returned to Europe from New York, he reached out to Favre, and their association began with a duo concert at Centre Dürrenmatt in Neuchâtel. They have continued with that format ever since, united by their shared appreciation for tonal colors, patient improvising, and an open mind about mixing jazz with other musical forms.
Vol À Voile (Intakt 2010)
+Blaser-Ducret Duo
Two facts inspired Samuel Blaser to initiate his partnership with Marc Ducret; he knew that he appreciated the French electric guitarist’s playing, and he knew that Ducret liked to play with trombonists. From this common ground has grown an enduring partnership, with each musician completing many of the other’s projects. In this duo, they use a repertoire that includes compositions written by both men as launching platforms to explore an empathy that transcends style.
Audio Rebel (Blaser Music, 2020)
+Blaser-Hemingway Duo
American-born, Swiss-based Gerry Hemingway has been drumming, composing, and improvising since the 1970s with many titans of creative music, including Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Marilyn Crispell, John Butcher, and Georg Graewe. He brings textural variety, rhythmic imagination, and an ability to relate all forms of music back to the blues; what else could a restlessly self-challenging trombonist ask for? In Samuel Blaser’s case, another opportunity to play with Gerry Hemingway.
Oostum (No Business Records, 2018)
+Samuel Blaser Trio with Ducret and Peter Bruun
Danish drummer Peter Bruun joined Samuel Blaser and Marc Ducret for the first time in 2013, and as of the great pause of 2020 they have played over 150 concerts together. For several years that was the only way to experience their mercurial interaction, which encompasses lyrical melodic statements, hushed abstractions, and exhaustive explorations of their material’s myriad implications. While it is now possible to hear what the trio sounds like, each set is a new opportunity to share in their ongoing pursuit of discovery.
ABC vol. 2 (Blaser Music, 2020) ABC vol. 1 (Blaser Music, 2020) Taktlos Zürich 2017 (Hatology, 2018)
+Samuel Blaser Quartet
For as long as he has been a bandleader and recording artist, Samuel Blaser has usually had a quartet that showcases his compositions and affords him the resources to investigate formal concerns. The current membership includes keyboardist Russ Lossing, bassist Masa Kamaguchi, and drummer Gerry Hemingway. On their most recent recording, Early In The Mornin’, an augmented version of the quartet reconciles jazz’s foundational, African-American folk forms and the structural imagination of contemporary composition.
Early in the Mornin’ (OutNote Records, 2018) Spring Rain (Whirlwind Recordings, 2015) As The Sea (Hatology, 2012) Boundless (Hatology, 2011) Pieces of Old Sky (Clean Feed, 2009) 7th Heaven (Between the Lines, 2008)
+Samuel Blaser Solo
Solo trombone improvisers are rare specimens, and many current practitioners tilt heavily towards extended techniques. While Samuel Blaser does not shy away from such effects, he has established a singular solo language on his instrument by placing equal emphasis on melody, wit, and a proactive relationship to space and acoustics. On 18 Monologues Élastiques, his second solo recording, he uses the limestone walls and long hallways of the Funkhaus in Berlin to shape his sounds.
18 Monologues Élastiques (Blaser Music/OutNote Records, 2020) Solo Bone (Slam Productions, 2008)
+The Don Drummond Tribute
Jamaican ska music is recognized as the precursor to reggae, but it is also a child of jazz. During the 1960s trombonist Don Drummond, tenor saxophonist Tommy McCook, and the other founding members of the Skatalites applied their bebop chops to mento, calypso, and American pop rhythms to create ska’s distinctly choppy groove. Samuel Blaser and keyboardist/artistic director Alex Wilson bring things full circle by convening a group of jazz musicians to interpret their music with individuality and respect
+Humair Blaser Känzig
While drummer Daniel Humair, bassist Heiri Känzig, and trombonist Samuel Blaser represent three generations of Swiss jazz, they find ample common ground on their debut recording, 1291. Named for the year that Switzerland’s original three cantons united, the album honors their shared heritage by including “Guggisberglied,” a folk song that is nearly 280 years old. Their interpretations of tunes by Kid Ory, Sydney Bechet, and the Original Dixieland Jass Band, as well as original compositions by the trio’s members, update the exuberance of early jazz with their collective grasp of a century’s advances.
1291 (OutNote Records, 2020)
Samuel Blaser is a XO Sophisticated Brass Artist.