S O U N D T R A C K S P r i n c i p a l   W o r k s   •   C o l l a b o r a t i o n s / s e s s i o n s

Jon Hassell: film star (Million Dollar Hotel)

P e t e r   G a b r i e l   —   B i r d y 1985 Virgin Gabriel reworks pieces from his ethnic-styled fourth solo album with contributions from JH and Daniel Lanois.

P e t e r   G a b r i e l   —   P a s s i o n ( T h e   L a s t   T e m p t a t i o n   o f   C h r i s t ) 1989 RealWorld Brilliant blend of modern production/electronics and North African/Middle Eastern music and atmospheres. JH on one track only, Passion but this also includes the late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. A wealth of guest artists include Hossam Ramzi, Shankar, Baaba Maal, Youssou N'Dour, David Rhodes and Bill Cobham.

R y   C o o d e r   —   T r e s p a s s 1993 Warner Brothers JH with Ry Cooder for the first time. The dark side of City: Works of Fiction. Cooder's growling guitar and "floor slide" (a huge slide guitar), Jim Keltner's percussion and JH's trumpet conjure tense and energetic urban soundscapes. Far superior to Walter Hill's lacklustre film and probably the best of all JH soundtrack work. Note: there are two Trespass soundtracks — this one and another featuring the film's rap music.

W i l d   S i d e 1995 No soundtrack album The last, troubled film of maverick director Donald Cammell (Performance). Hassell's music (among other things) was a bone of contention with the producers who hated Cammell's take on what, in other hands, would have been a lightweight erotic drama. After a series of arguments, Cammell took his own life. The film has since been re-issued in a form closer to his intentions but still without a Hassell score. The late Jack Nitzsche, who produced the soundtrack for Performance, referred in passing to this in a 1998 interview with Harvey Kubernick: (Nitzsche) has also been championing cult musician Jon Hassell — whom he calls "the most innovative, important composer alive." Hassell, ironically, recently hooked up with Performance co-director Cammell for the film The Wild Side; the studio wanted to pull out the composer's work and eventually fired Cammell himself in 1996. He took his own life shortly thereafter. "Donald goes to a meeting," Nitzsche says. "And they say, 'My God, Donald. That music that you put into that film. We can't go with that.' Donald stood up for the composer. And the next thing that happened was the studio informed Donald that he was no longer the director of the film. They were taking over. They took the film away from him and fired Jon Hassell. "So Donald Cammell got the news and that was in the morning, and in the afternoon they took his body out. He lived for 40 minutes with a bullet in his head."

R y   C o o d e r   —   T h e   E n d   o f   V i o l e n c e 1997 Outpost Ry Cooder scores another Wim Wenders film following from his classic soundtrack for Paris, Texas.

T h e   S t a r t l e d   I n s e c t s  — L o v e   a n d   D e a t h   i n   L o n g   I s l a n d 1997 — JH in mournful trumpet mode with the music of The Startled Insects. (Note here the film's original title, corrected at the request of the director.)

T h e   P r a c t i c e 1997 — JH plays on the title theme of this popular ABC TV legal series.

R y   C o o d e r   —   P r i m a r y   C o l o r s 1998 MCA Mainly arrangements by Ry Cooder and Van Dyke Parks of traditional American songs. The sole JH track, Wide Sky, is from Fascinoma.

G r e e n w i c h   M e a n   T i m e 1998 Island An obscure British film with a soundtrack featuring Talvin Singh, JH, of course, and Guy Sigsworth, among others.

A i r l a n d s 2000 — An experimental, partly computer-generated film by artist Thomas Shannon. Uses music from The Vertical Collection as the score.

T h e   M i l l i o n   D o l l a r   H o t e l 2000 Island JH appears in front of the camera as one of the hotel's many "quirky" denizens (see above). Another terrible film from a once-great director. Good soundtrack, however, with standout Hassell composition Amsterdam Blue (Cortege), a marvellous, slow blues. JH also on the Danny Sabre remix of Satellite of Love with the film's star, Milla Jovovich.

A n g e l   E y e s 2001 Warner Brothers Features Nature Boy from Fascinoma.

T h e   I n s e c t s   —   O w n i n g   M a h o w n y 2003 — Another film from the director of Love and Death in Long Island (above) sees the return of The Insects (they abbreviated their name) and JH on soundtrack duties.