Grisman Quintet performs benefit show in Edmonds
Published 9:01 pm Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The David Grisman Quintet brings the sounds of bluegrass and “newgrass” to the Edmonds Center for the Arts Saturday, Aug. 1, in a benefit show for
Parkview Services, a non-profit agency providing affordable housing options for people with disabilities in Snohomish and King Counties.
Band leader David Grisman is a bluegrass/”newgrass” mandolinist, composer of acoustic music and founder of the Acoustic Disc record label. For more than 45 years, he has been creating “dawg” music, a blend of many influences, including folk,swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy.
Grisman discovered the mandolin as a teenager growing up in New Jersey, where he met and became a disciple of mandolinist/folklorist Ralph Rinzler. Grisman learned to play the mandolin in the style of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music. He took it with him to Greenwich Village where he studied English at New York University and became immersed in the folk music scene of the early 1960s.
In 1963 Grisman made his first recordings as an artist and producer. In 1966, Red Allen offered him his first job with an authentic bluegrass band, the Kentuckians. While studying the music of his bluegrass mandolin heroes like Bill Monroe, Jesse McReynolds and Frank Wakefield, Grisman began composing original tunes and playing with other urban bluegrass contemporaries like Peter Rowan and Jerry Garcia, with whom he would later form Old &in the Way in 1973.
Grisman’s interests spread to jazz in 1967, while playing in the folk-rock ensemble, Earth Opera. A failed attempt at learning to play the alto saxophone turned him into a student of jazz musicianship and theory. His burgeoning career as a session musician gave him experience playing other types of music and opportunities to stretch the boundaries of the mandolin.
Grisman’s discography is filled with notable artists including Sam Bush, Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, Stephane Grappelli, Emmylou Harris, Chris Isaak, Del McCoury, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and Earl Scruggs. His unique instrumental style found a home in 1974 when he formed the Great American Music Band with fiddler Richard Greene. “Nothing against singers,” said Grisman, “but it became apparent to me that I could play 90 minutes without one. Besides, Elvis never called.” Within a year, Greene moved on to join a pop act, and David met guitar wizard Tony Rice, who moved to California where they started rehearsing a new group, the David Grisman Quintet, which also included bassist/mandolinist Todd Phillips and violinist Darol Anger.
The DGQ has won numerous polls and awards and has headlined at major jazz, folk and bluegrass festivals around the world. DGQ alumni have gone on to establish successful careers as leaders of acoustic music.
Current DGQ members include bassist Jim Kerwin, flutist Matt Eakle, percussionist GeorgeMarsh and the newest member, guitarist Grant Gordy. In 1990, David founded the Acoustic Disc label with his friend and manager, Craig Miller, and two other longstanding friends from New York, Artie and Harriet Rose. To date, the label has released over 70 CDs, five of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards, all produced or co-produced by Grisman.
