Mandolin player mixes jazz, bluegrass

By Peter Corbett

His innovative synthesis of jazz and bluegrass may never make it big on Top 40 radio, but mandolinist David Grisman has made his mark and expanded the limits of both genres of American music.

In 1974, Grisman took bluegrass music a two-step further when be produced the Old and in the Way album, which is one of the largest selling bluegrass albums ever.  More recently, the fusion mandolinist drew praise from jazz critics for his 1987 album Svinging with Svend, recorded with Danish jazz violin virtuoso Svend Asmussen.

Grisman, who calls his jazzgrass blend “dawg music,” will bring his progressive sound to the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall on Saturday night for Scottsdale’s Centennial celebration. The David Grisman Quintet will headline a free outdoor concert that starts at 5:30 p.m. with Blitz Creek, a Tucson bluegrass band. At sundown, Riders in the Sky take the stage with a zany blend of Western swing music and campy cowboy humor.

Grisman’s performance will precede the fireworks show. And don’t be surprised to hear some fireworks from Grisman’s latest ensemble of musicians, which manager Craig Miller says is being called the best Grisman has ever put together.

Grisman’s previous sidemen – Tony Rice, Darol Anger, Mike Marsba1l and Mark O’Connor – have forged their own musical identities in acoustic jazz and progressive bluegrass circles.

The latest quintet of guitarist Dimitri Vandellos, bassist James Kerwin, fiddler Jin Buchanon and drummer George Marsh has been playing nearly two years.

The addition of a drummer has been a significant change for Grisman’s music, says Miller, adding that Marsh’s light touch blends well with the acoustic instruments.

Vandellos also adds some different tangents for the quintet to take off on with his versatility.  He plays classical, steel string and a hollow-body electric guitar, ala George Benson, says Miller.

Grisman gives his sidemen plenty of chance to step out front on solos, but don’t look for them to outshine their band leader. Grisman jokes that the number one rule is: “Don’t blow the boss off the stage.”

Grisman needn’t worry much. His chops on mandolin earned him praise as the “Paganini of the Mandolin” and the “first and foremost fusion mandolinist of our day.”

Grisman not only bas brought the mandolin out of the closet and restored its status, but his infusion of a new direction for bluegrass bas influenced a generation of pickers. Bluegrass purists may shun Grisman’s dawg music, but musicians bored by “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and “Rocky Top” embraced the new sound with a passion.

So much so that James Tarbox of the St. Paul Pioneer Press commented that Grisman “may prove to be as important to the history of bluegrass music as the music’s inventor, Bill Monroe.” Among Grisman’s earliest influences on mandolin were Monroe and Jethro Burns.

The San Francisco mandolinist also bas been heavily influenced by the gypsy rhythms of guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grapelli, with whom he recorded a live album in 1981. And he bas recorded with rock and folk rock musicians including the Grateful Dead, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Dan Fogelberg and Bonnie Raitt.

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