American trumpeter and composer best known for his Fourth World
music and his celebrated collaboration with Brian EnoIn his pursuit of something he came to call Fourth World music, the trumpeter and composer Jon Hassell, who has died aged 84, exerted an influence on his contemporaries that went far beyond the immediate popularity of his own work. To create “a contemporary coffee-coloured classical music”, Hassell drew together strands of music from around the world to make something that, without compromising its own identity, seemed to belong everywhere.
Although he performed at the first Womad festival in 1982, he never considered himself a part of the world music movement. That appearance came at the behest of the event’s organiser, Peter Gabriel, one of those artists on whose records Hassell would appear. Others who sought his contribution to their music included Brian Eno, Talking Heads, David Sylvian, Ry Cooder, kd lang, Jackson Browne and Tears for Fears.