David Grisman Quintet

[garymd]

I just got back from the show at Strathmore Music Center. LarryC also attended.

My wife and I, along with my brother, his wife and in-laws were front row, center. AMAZING show. If you ever get the chance to see Grisman live, DO IT! This is my second time in the past 3 years. He may be the best mandolin player alive today and his quintet is nothing short of outstanding.

Also, I may have helped Larry find some music he likes that isn't classical!!! Well, that's not completely true but I sure hope he enjoyed the show as much as we did.

I'd add more but I'm pretty tired and I'll be leaving for parents weekend bright and early tomorrow morning at my daughter's college in PA. Maybe Larry can fill you in. There was a special guest appearance by Frank Wakefield at the end of the show. Great stuff!

[fini]

Very cool, Gary! I've seen Grisman a bunch of times, always a great show. I've seen him with Doc Watson, Stephanne Grapelli, Jethro Burns & Tiny Moore, Tony Rice, Mark O'Connor...I guess I was kind of a "groupie." How embarassing! How'd you like his percussionist, Joe Craven? Pretty creative guy. Congrats on a nice evening. As you are well aware, his recordings are excellent.

[fini]

UGH! DBL PST

[boom3]

Grisman was a close friend of Jerry Garcia's from jug band days when

the "urban hilllbilly" movement was floating between the oh-so-urbane

Beats and the Hippies of later years. If you want to hear one of the

best folk albums of all time, pick up Shady Grove, a collaboration

between Garcia and Grisman shortly before Jerry's death.

[LarryC]

Not so much my area of music, but I can say that each player was very special. The jazz flutist made the most of the style with his soft & gentle instrument, and the flute sound was a great complement to the South American influence that Gary told me comes from the Argentina-born Enrique Coria on the guitar. Jim Kerwin, the bass player, had a phenomenal range of sounds and techniques, some of which I suppose comes from studying classical bass playing for five years. I thought he and Grisman were the most intereting players. Grisman is amazing.

Some of the music interested me, some not quite as much. I may pick up Shady Grove (thanks boom3!), since I'm relatively traditional-folk oriented. Strathmore is as good a setting for these groups as it is for a symphony orchestra.

[garymd]

Larry,

I have every Grisman/Garcia colaboration on CD. I'll loan you Shady Grove. It, along with "The Pizza Tapes" which also includes Tony Rice, are two of my favorites. I think you've heard the latter.

[garymd]

Very cool, Gary! I've seen Grisman a bunch of times, always a great show. I've seen him with Doc Watson, Stephanne Grapelli, Jethro Burns & Tiny Moore, Tony Rice, Mark O'Connor...I guess I was kind of a "groupie." How embarassing! How'd you like his percussionist, Joe Craven? Pretty creative guy. Congrats on a nice evening. As you are well aware, his recordings are excellent.

Fini,

It's easy to be a groupie when you live in CALIFORNIA!!!

[Woodog]

Wow.. you lucky dawg, you. Grisman is one of the greats, that's for sure. I recently purchased the DGQ20, a 20 year perspective. Fun stuff. My introduction to Tony Rice was on the 1976 release 'David Grisman Quintet'.

ANYTHING he puts out is exceptional.

Thanks for the report!

Woo

[Marvel]

Wow.. you lucky dawg, you. Grisman is one of the

greats, that's for sure. I recently purchased the DGQ20, a 20 year

perspective. Fun stuff. My introduction to Tony Rice was on the

1976 release 'David Grisman Quintet'.

ANYTHING he puts out is exceptional.

Thanks for the report!

Woo

I've got that on vinyl. Great album, even on my turntable.

[garymd]

The highlights of the show for me had to be 1) a great version of Milt (Bags) Jackson's, "Bag's Groove" (also found on the Garcia/Grisman CD, "So What" along with about a gazillion jazz LPs - it's a jazz standard) and a very cool "Shady Jam" into a short version of "Shady Grove" that only contained one verse. Grisman avoids vocals like the plague.

The encore was a classic Wakefield song (the name of which eludes me at the moment) with the two mandolin greats playing together. Apparently Wakefield was Grisman's hero when he was young and was the reason he picked up the mandolin to begin with. You could see how thrilled they both were to be playing together (from about 8 feet away that wasn't very difficult!).

[ben.]

Beautiful! That close you were probably hearing more direct sound than what was in the PA. That's the real thing.

I heard some Grisman on the XM bluegrass channel Tuesday. I was down in Pennsyltucky, durn near Ohio, and I just got a hankerin for some high n lonesome... If I can get one moment like that each month, it might just be worth the $13.