An alumnus of Boston's New England Conservatory, trombonist
Curtis Hasselbring -- also known as
Curha -- is among a number of creative jazz musicians who moved to New York (Brooklyn, specifically) and enlivened the city's so-called "downtown scene" during the '90s, continuing his outré explorations into the 21st century as both a bandleader and valued sideman.
Hasselbring's first recorded appearances began when he was still in Boston in the late '80s, however, as a member of
Ken Schaphorst's big band,
Russ Gershon's freewheeling
Either/Orchestra, and
the Charlie Kohlhase Quintet. In 1988
Hasselbring also began leading his own band, Mellow Edwards, which gigged regularly at a café in Cambridge.
The trombonist continued to perform and record with
Schaphorst's ensemble and
the Either/Orchestra -- appearing on a number of Accurate label albums by both groups -- until, like many creative jazzers on the Boston scene, he was drawn to New York and the city's fertile avant jazz environment. A Knitting Factory regular,
Hasselbring participated in bands led by the likes of
Bobby Previte,
Frank London,
Jerry Granelli,
Satoko Fujii, and
Matt Darriau (Ballin' the Jack) beginning in the mid- to late '90s and continuing into the 2000s. His trombone also slid through the arrangements of the Balkan street band stylings of
Slavic Soul Party!, a group whose early membership included reedman
Chris Speed, like
Hasselbring a New England Conservatory graduate who had become a key member of the Brooklyn-based avant jazz community.
Meanwhile, over a dozen musicians had passed through the ranks of
Hasselbring's Mellow Edwards group, and in the early 2000s the trombonist felt a name change was in order, christening the band the New Mellow Edwards and ultimately solidifying the lineup into an impressive quartet including bassist
Trevor Dunn, drummer
John Hollenbeck, and
Speed on tenor sax and clarinet. In 2006,
Speed founded the independent Skirl Records label, and the New Mellow Edwards' eponymous debut CD arrived on Skirl that same year. Three years later, Skirl issued the group's sophomore album,
Big Choantza.
In 2010
Hasselbring received support from Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works Commissioning and Ensemble Development program for his most ambitious project yet,
Number Stations, a composed and improvised set based on the curious phenomenon of actual shortwave radio stations that broadcast sequences of numbers thought to be coded messages sent by intelligence agencies to their spies in various countries around the world.
Hasselbring conceived the piece for an extended ensemble consisting of the New Mellow Edwards (now with
Ches Smith rather than
John Hollenbeck on drums) combined with Decoupage, another band that he leads. In addition to
Hasselbring on trombone, Decoupage features guitarist
Mary Halvorson,
Slavic Soul Party!'s
Matt Moran on vibes and marimba, and percussionist
Satoshi Takeishi; with participation from both the New Mellow Edwards and Decoupage,
Number Stations was thus performed by a seven-piece aggregation drawing from two distinct sides of
Hasselbring's previous creative output. The
Cuneiform label (also home, by the way, to
the Claudia Quintet, featuring
Hasselbring collaborators
Speed,
Hollenbeck, and
Moran) released
Number Stations on disc in January 2013. ~ Dave Lynch