THE SONGS WE USED TO SING

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Brani

                                                                                                                                                                                                            1 - Change (07:02)

                                                                                                                                                                                                            2 - And Then We Were Three (12:21)

                                                                                                                                                                                                            3 - Black Mountain (09:42)

                                                                                                                                                                                                            4 - The Songs We Used To Sing (20:38)

                                                                                                                                                                                                            5 - La Fille Qui Sommeille (08:01)

                                                                                                                                                                                                            6 - Tell Them I Love You (08:41)

                                                                                                                                                                                                            7 - Mood Ring (11:01)

The creation of "The Songs we used to sing" did not follow a usual path. The group, assembled by Tony Moreno and consisting, apart from Tony, of Jazz icons Russ Lossing and John Hébert, met the first and only time during an afternoon in August 2010. The location, a combined rehearsing and recording facility at Westbeth in Manhattan, gave the possibility to play and record on-the-go with the primary idea of documenting the session. It turned out that the quartet established a mutual consent and strong connectivity right on the first beat, resulting in the music that is contained on “The Songs we used to sing”. Some tunes are compositions brought by the musicians, played prima vista, while other tracks are purely improvised. A noble notion goes to the tune “Change” which was played during the session for the first time ever, making it hard for Gassmann, being strongly moved, to stay within the boundaries of professional performance.

"Retro-conceiving this album to my late mother came very natural to me", Gassmann says. "The emotions and warmth of this afternoon brought back memories of my childhood and taught me again the lesson of engaging and opening-up in the current present, expressing myself holistically and seeking for the moments of clarity and absence of options. And I felt my fellow musicians to be in the same mode. I am very thankful for this."