Juno Award-winning and multiple horn player Gabriel Mark Hasselbach has a long-established gratitude practice.

Having just released his second album since this past June, he’s feeling grateful about this prolific summer that will see the release of this fifteenth album, “Count Your Lucky Stars,” which he wrote and produced with Lew Laing Jr. (Paul Brown, Richard Elliot, Norman Brown) and comes out via Windtunnel Records release this August 2nd, 2024.

“Count Your Lucky Stars” is a 13-song aural exploration through contemporary jazz rhythms, grooves and melodies. Showcasing his lyrically expressive horn play, Hasselbach wields multiple horns on every track throughout the project, finding the variety empowers him to uniquely color, shade and texturize each song.

“I mix my flute and my muted trumpet and my flugelhorn in a lot of different combinations. And I really like the balance of those textures. It provides different sonic colors to me, so it’s something that I’ve gravitated to and just by nature have developed,” Hasselbach recently told the Jazziz podcast.

1. “Sunseeker” (featuring Marion Meadows)
2. “Count Your Lucky Stars”
3. “Positive Space”
4. “We Are” (featuring Alfie Zappacosta)
5. “Force of Habit” (featuring Miles Black and Andrew Freeman)
6. “Funky Lew” (featuring Lew Laing Jr.)
7. “Written in the Stars” (featuring Eddie Bullen)
8. “Show of Hands” (featuring Glenn Riley)
9. “Paris Solstice” (featuring Miles Black)
10. “Just A Little Fling”
11. “State of Play” (featuring Andrew Jacob Scott)
12. “That Being Said” (featuring Steve Alaniz and Andre Frappier)
13. “Work the Magic”
14. “We Are” (featuring Alfie Zappacosta) [Radio Edit]

This wondrously enigmatic new recording opens on the sumptuous sewn “Sunseeker” (featuring saxophonist Marion Meadows) and the foot-tapping title track “Count Your Lucky Stars” and then we are brought forth the elegant “Positive Space,” the playfully flirtatious “We Are” (featuring Italian-born, Canadian musician Alfie Zappacosta), the soulfully luxurious “Force of Habit” (featuring jazz pianist Miles Black and rock singer and guitarist Andrew Freeman) and both the aptly-named “Funky Lew” (featuring keyboardist Lew Laing Jr.) and the languishing “Written in the Stars” (featuring pianist Eddie Bullen).

Along next is the smoothly grooved “Show of Hands” (featuring bassist Glenn Riley) and the delicately-hued “Paris Solstice” (featuring Black) and they are in turn seamlessly followed by the gentle finger-snapper “Just A Little Fling,” the warmth of “State of Play” (featuring Canadian jazz guitarist Andrew Jacob Scott), the beautifully sculpted “That Being Said” (featuring saxophonist Steve Alaniz and accomplished guitarist Andre Frappier), the album rounding out on the all-embracing “Work the Magic,” closing on a radio edit of “We Are.”

Listen to “Sunseeker” here!

www.gabrieljazz.com