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By Kathy Foster-Patton
David Grisman |
David Grisman hit a major milestone in October, celebrating the 30th anniversary of his famous quintet that makes "dawg" music — an intriguing blend of rhythm, blues, bluegrass, jazz, and South American strains. He marked the anniversary by releasing not one, but two new recordings, the first he made with the David Grisman Quintet, and the other with the Bluegrass Experience. Located in Northern California, the plain-spoken mandolinist discussed his music and career with JamBase, as well as the provenance of the current favored instrument that he is utilizing.
When asked to pin down the single biggest influence on his musical career, Grisman mulled over the question only for a moment. "Well, if I could name one person, it's hard to do. I guess I'd have to say it's Ralph Rinzler. Ralph Rinzler was my mentor; he was a mandolin player and a musicologist and a folklorist and an amazing human being who happened to come from the same town in New Jersey that I did. I met him when I was two years old, when he was in my mother's junior art school class. My mom was an art teacher. When I was about 15 years old and getting interested in folk music, there were three of us kids who wanted to start a folk music club. We went to my favorite teacher, and she recommended her cousin, Ralph, a professional folk musician, and he came to our junior high school English class with a mandolin, a guitar, and a five-string banjo and he kind of changed my life. He's the guy who discovered Doc Watson and ran the Newport Folk Festival and was head of the Smithsonian Folk Life Institute and engineered the purchase of Folkways Records for the Smithsonian and he did some amazing things. He was Bill Monroe's manager and helped promote Bill Monroe in the early 60's, and I was fortunate enough to be a kid hanging out while a lot of this stuff was going on. He was also a great mandolin player. He played with the Greenbriar Boys, which was the first bluegrass band from New York City. He did a lot of amazing things. If I had to name one influence, it would be him."
David Grisman :: 1954 |
Grisman named off the others who helped mold him into the musician that he is today. "My dad, who was a musician and unfortunately passed away when I was ten, but he got me started with piano lessons. My mom was a very artistic person as well. I guess your parents have got to figure into it somewhere. I don't know, there are so many musical influences — Bill Monroe, Frank Wakefield, the mandolin player that took me under his wing. I don't try to be not influenced by anything. I'm happy to be influenced by everything good I've ever encountered; it's so hard to single out. I've listened to a lot of music, I could start rattling off... Django Rheinhart, Stephane Grappelli, all the great bluegrass players. There are just too many to name."
After initially recording for several major and independent labels, Grisman founded his own company, Acoustic Disc, which he runs from his California studio. He launched the label in 1990 and has produced over 50 critically acclaimed acoustic music recordings and garnered five Grammy award nominations to date. Grisman's peers hold him in high regard for his eclectic sound, named "dawg" as it resembles no other genre except its own. He related his line of thinking in releasing two recordings at the same time. "They coincided time wise, and both were recorded roughly at the same time. It seemed like we could hopefully make a bigger splash with two of them, and at the same time, we could amortize promotional expenses, take out an ad for two of them. You sort of cut your expenses in half." The CDs differ not only in sound, but also in band members. The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience is oriented around more traditional melodies. The band features some well-known bluegrass names: Keith Little on banjo and vocals (formerly with Ricky Skaggs), Jim Nunally on guitar and vocals (currently with Due West and John Reichman and the Jaybirds), and Chad Manning on fiddle (also with Due West). David's son rounds out the group on bass. The second CD, Dawg's Groove, is the first recording for the David Grisman Quintet since Joe Craven left the group. Grisman is joined by drummer George Marsh, guitarist Enrique Coria, Matt Eakle on flute, and Jim Kerwin on bass.
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