SAMUEL BLASER

On the Flying Carpet

They could be grandfather, father and son:  The drummer Daniel Humair, the bass player Heiri Kanzig and the trombone player Samuel Blaser are 85, 66 and 42 years old: but the three musicians meet on the same level - in an intriguing conversation which combines tradition and modernity, lyric and drama, intimacy and humour.   All three are not only masters of their instruments but also band leaders and composers of renown.  In their roles, but also as sidemen, they are much valued by the global jazz community and superbly well connected.  In 2020 the All-star trio collaborated for this first album ‘1291’: 

The title refers to the year in which the Federal Charter originated.  This charter was the oldest constitutional document of Switzerland.  Now, with ‘Our Way’, the band has produced a convincing second album.

The next album followed the same concept as before.  Once again it consisted of their own compositions in addition to standard jazz pieces as well as versions of Swiss folksongs from various parts of the country. 

However, their teamwork as a trio has become much stronger due to them performing together more frequently.  This enables the three musicians to interact much more spontaneously using their vast experience.  Therefore, they also have the urge to widen their tried and tested repertoire extensively since the first album.

“Originally, the trio was the idea of Daniel Humair,” said Samuel Blaser, the youngest of the band who guides the melody and simultaneously organises - a bit like a leader.  Whereas, Humair, the painter on the drums, and Kanzig, the poet on the bass, are much more than just accompanists.  “I was invited to Daniels 80thbirthday in Lyon” Blaser continued, “There was lots of music. Michal Portal, Stefano di Battista and Bruno Chevillon were there and who knows who else.  We jammed and Daniel said, “Let’s make a trio with Heiri”.  He knew the bass player really well, whereas although I had always admired him, I had never played with him.”

Obviously, it was immediately clear to Humair, what talent he was confronted with in Samiel Blaser.  The Genf born musician who moved to Paris in 1958, who had worked with world renowned celebrities from Chet Baker to Phil Woods, from Lee Konitz to Art Farmer, from Dave Liebman to Richard Galliano possessed immense experience in assessing musicians.  If he had had any doubts such as with the guitar player Marc Ducret and as well as Blaser and even Humair, they would have been dismissed.

It is obviously not difficult to love Samuel Blaser:  He is simultaneously an uncompromising artist and a very approachable person – not a common mixture!  After a total of almost twenty years travelling around Paris, New York and Berlin, he has, once again, been living for a while in his native town La Chaux-de-Fonds where he grew up and where he was taught for eleven years by Jacques Henri.  Henri introduced him to both masters of his instrument, J.J. Johnson and Albert Mangelsdorff, which made a huge impression on him in his early years.  At a later date, Glen Ferris also became important to him, mainly because of his velvet tones.  “Once”, he said, “I asked Glenn: “How do you manage to get so much air in your sound?”, and he answered: “I don’t have air in my sound, I have sound in my air”. 

Samuel Blaser plays an instrument that was made for him by the well-known trombone maker Winfried Rapp in Schwieberdingen near Stuttgart.  He practises on it daily.  He says, “The trombone is relentless. It’s immediately noticeable if the musician doesn’t practice daily.  To start with, it’s the flexibility, such as the coordination of the tongue and the lips, as well as in the arm movements.  Also, you don’t want to get stuck at the same level.  You want to continuously move forward.”

Blaser, with his exceptional technique, is convincing as a soloist.  He took over the voicings from Von Albert Mangelsdorf.  He has also mastered the double-tonguing and the doodle-tonguing.  He enjoys using a mixture of these tongue beats to give the sound more impact. For him, his expertise isn’t just for its own sake.  He uses it to express what his creativity dictates.

As his previous recordings prove, Blaser is an extremely multi-talented musician.  Particularly with the guitarist Marc Ducret, he played sophisticated chamber jazz: in a duo, as in a trio (with Peter Bruun on the drums) and in a quartet (with Banz Oester on the bass and Gerald Cleaver on the drums).  Included in his Discography are “folk songs” from Luciano Berio for mezzo-soprano and small ensemble as well as the groovy Reggae inspired album ‘Routes’ (2023) that he    achieved with an eight-piece band plus an additional seven guest artists.  The collection of thirteen pieces is included on ‘Our Way’.  A whole album, with only bass and drums, and without the safety net of harmonising instruments, can be challenging for a trombone player, even more difficult than for a saxophonist.  “The airy texture demands an enormous presence but also gives me more freedom”,says Samuel Blaser.  It stretched and inspired me.  Also. I could totally rely on both of my  musical collaborators; they not only provide the music with a solid foundation but also continuously provide inspiration and contribute their own ideas.”

You can sense the engagement and pleasure in playing with every note.  It can’t become monotonous because of the multitude of material.  Successful individual ideas (e.g. Heiri’s idea with his magnificent Ostinato-Figur on the bass or the humorous ‘Root Beer Rag’, stand alongside the Thelonius Monk classics ‘Jackie-Ing’ and ‘Bemsha Swing’ that Humair had suggested; a Tessiner Mazurka and the touching Rhaeto-Romanic way ‘Chara Lingua della Mamm’ stand alongside Duke Ellington’s ‘Creole Love Call’ and the irrepressible ‘Tiger Rag’.  However, the pieces are not just churned out but given a totally original interpretation, occasionally altered and even deconstructed. 

Ueli Bernays, the long-time jazz journalist for the NZZ once wrote of Daniel Humair “If Buddha had been a drummer he would have played like Daniel Humair”.  Peter Ruedi, a veteran of the Swiss jazz critic wrote of Heiri Kanzig “He is among the most spectacular and  overpowers you with his bulky/unwieldy powerful instrument.  Samuel Blaser’s trombone playing is also colourful, meaningful, somehow moving.

Thus, on their flying carpet, the trio carry us along into the unknown.

Manfred Papst, September 2023

Daniel Humair – An artist with drumsticks and brushes

As a drummer, Daniel Humair, with his strong personality, is still the backbone of the ensemble. For years he was active in a trio with Vincent Le Quang and the bass player Stephane Kerecki.  He was in a quartet with the saxophone player Maxime Bender, the pianist Benjamin Moussay and again Kerecki on the bass.  In 2023 he played in a trio with the pianist Herve Sellin and the bass player Jean-Paul Celea and of course in the magical trio Helveticus with the trombone player Samuel Blaser and the bass player Heiri Kanzig that produced the second follow up album to “1291” with “Our Way” .

However, Daniel Humair is not only a master with the sticks but also with the brushes.  Many of his admirers in the jazz community are unaware of his additional career as an artist.  Whether with paint brushes or drumsticks, with either his right hand or his left, whatever he tackles, he does with full commitment.

Daniel Humair was born in Genf on 23 May 1938 under the sign of Gemini and, for once, it appears that the astrological cliché of twin personalities is actually applicable.  Like Hermes, the messenger of the gods, he is totally ambidextrous.  This Genf born jazz drummer has set the standard for over six decades and is just as famous for his artistic activity with paint brushes.

Since Humair rediscovered his love for art, while on tour with the pianist Martial Solal in the Antibes in 1963, he no longer travels without his art equipment.  In addition, he paints daily at home or in his studio at 11 Arrondissement in Paris.  At one time he thought it unimaginable to be a more outdated drummer, but an aged painter was not a problem.

Humair’s musical career was not obvious from the start.  As a trombone player, as well as other brass instruments, with the down to earth Fanfares from “L’Ondine genevoise” he hadn’t yet cut recorded any major pieces.  However, during puberty he discovered the fluorescent coloured pencils that were being produced right next door in the new factory of Caran d’Ache.  He used them to colour the windows …

Then he discovered his love for jazz and his career as an artist lapsed for a while.  

Within two years, in 1954, he had won all the drumming prizes at the Zurcher Jazz Festival, received his first bookings, gone on tour to Sweden and become a professional musician.  In 1958, at the age of eighteen, he relocated to Paris.

In Paris he often played for the famous Americans such as Lucky Thompson, Kenny Dorham, BUD Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Chet Baker or Eric Dolphy, who, at that time, although having led their own bands, often came to Europe alone.

For 60 years, Humair followed this double career as a musician playing at thousands of live concerts and made hundreds of recordings, including at least 20 as bandleader.  In the same period, he painted over 5000 pictures which were displayed at about 200 exhibitions in Europe and Japan.  His most famous work was the official poster for the tennis tournament at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris 2004.

“They are two completely different art forms but I can improvise in both.  In my case, the music nourishes the art, but not the reverse.”

Both these creative activities seem contradictory at first but not exclusively.  As a musician, being a member of an orchestra gives Humair an actual purpose.

“Personally, I don’t just want to fulfil a function. I believe that the skill of a drummer is to provide a rhythm which will actively determine the process of creating the music.”

His ambition, from the very beginning, has always been to create new improvisations and interactions.  His friend and music partner Michel Portal invented the expression ‘intercreativity’ to describe this.

Painting is personal, the concentrated interaction of the tension between the artist and his art should clearly leave a noticeable trace.  Humair emphasized that by his ‘abstract narrative’ a deepening is possible whereas with jazz only the present moment counts.  It might be surprising that he also mentions improvisation when he talks of his painting but it is actually true.  The first step in the process is painting on a non-absorbant background such as plastic, vinyl or glass – similar to the window that he coloured as a boy.  He then manually transfers[SP1]  this image onto a canvas which he then embellishes using various objects e.g. a brush, a paint knife or even rectangular, circular or triangular objects which he has distorted.

Because he is perfectly ambidextrous, Humair obviously uses both hands whereby, using a French play on words, he suggests that his right hand is rather ‘left wing’.  He paints without music in the background because it disturbs his concentration and the rhythm, even when painting, the vibration is important.  Music doesn’t inspire him while painting because the rhythm is a distraction.  When he has a brush in his fingers he feels the same inner buzz, just as with his drumsticks when he is playing jazz. With considerable constrictions.

“You can’t go back to something when you’re performing.  When you are painting you can correct it, throw it away, start again until it’s right.  In a concert everything happens the moment you pick up your drumsticks.  From then on everything is predetermined: the band, the place, the time.  That creates more responsibility.  With painting, you alone are responsible for the result.”

Rhythm plays an important role as a bridge between both art forms.

“Naturally, as there are forms such as Pulsations (i.e. wave movement that reminds one of the rhythm of the heart) …  In the kitchen there is also a rhythm just by following a particular recipe.  It’s exactly the same with painting or the cinema.  The only thing that really doesn’t interest me is art without a pulse, that is consciously slow and monotonous.”

When I first met Daniel Humair and wanted to know his reason for playing, he replied short and sweet “for pleasure”.  Of course, it goes deeper than you think.  It’s like a game for him when he maintains that creative interaction.  It’s also a game the way he has refined his personal technique over decades.  Constantly adding new pictures with new variations and, above all, creating new vibrations or new recipes in the kitchen, his third area of artistry.

Every game has its rules.  Humair’s fundamental attitude towards his creative activities is to respect and simultaneously to break the rules as he does in his painting.  That is his life’s philosophy – to take risks so as to create something new and unexpected, even if it could go wrong.  Just as he does with his painting.  The pianist Joachim Kuhn aptly described, in reference to the first gig of the legendary trio with Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark on bass:

“ Before the first concert of this trio we had just had a rehearsal.  At the evening meal, Daniel had drawn a figure on a serviette.  That was Guylene and we have played it at every concert, although it was always different.  We have never discussed it.  I have asked Daniel if we need to have any more rehearsals. He declined as he didn’t have the time and we have never rehearsed since.  It was either ok or not.  So is jazz”.

Ruedi Ankli, September 2023

Translation from German to English by Sonny Priem