Composer and trumpeter Jon Hassell has been an elusive, iconic musical figure for more than half a century.
He’s best known as the pioneer and propagandist of “Fourth World” music, mixing technology with the tradition and spirituality of non-Western cultures to create what he termed the “coffee-colored classical music of the future.”
In 1987 he joined with Farafina, the acclaimed percussion, voice, and dance troupe from Burkina Faso, to record ‘Flash of the Spirit’. While the album is a natural extension of those “Fourth World” ideas, it is also a distinctive outlier in the careers of both artists; an unrepeated merging of sounds whose influence still reverberates today.
On its release 32 years ago, ‘Flash of the Spirit’ was a revelation, a record that had no clear parallel for its encompassing sound. The album remains a testament to both the influence Hassell has quietly exerted on contemporary music, and the forward-looking traditionalism of Farafina, one of West Africa’s great rhythmic ensembles. As walls and barriers are erected around the globe, it is hard not to think of the music found on ‘Flash of the Spirit’ as ever more relevant. An echo from the past. Still transmitting future possibilities.
