GABRIEL MARK HASSELBACH young man with a horn

He wasn’t exactly born playing a horn—but it certainly followed shortly thereafter.

In fact, it was in the 3rd Grade that Vancouver-based trumpet virtuoso Gabriel Mark Hasselbach actually recorded music for a school fundraising project in his native Colorado.

“I was in a multi-school summer band program when I was eight years old, my first year playing the trumpet,” he recalls.

“We recorded a vinyl record of concert band material that summer as a fundraiser; I was even front and center on the album jacket, although not particularly singled out.

“From there the die was cast.

“I stayed in school bands and took private lessons, and at twelve I joined the Columbia Records Club—buy one get 5 free—and I remember my first batch consisting of Clifford Brown and Art Blakey Live at the Blue Note,

“I was listening to late night jazz radio shows from New York, Chicago and St. Louis, in bed under the covers with a little 7 transistor radio, the radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere to the Mile High City.

“I really fell in love with that organ trio sound and all the great horn players.”