Monday, July 19, 2010

DGBE @ City Winery 7/17/10

I can't get over what David Grisman's mandolin playing does to me. It hits me from a technical aspect and it hits me in the soul. I mean, every time he hits a note, I get an oohh feeing. Every time. My list of dream bands has a new entry: David Grisman, Doug Wamble, Charlie Hunter on 7-string guitar, Jenny Scheinman, Todd Sickafoose, Skerik on tenor and baritone saxes, Steven Bernstein on regular and slide trumpets and Bernard Purdie on drums. Doug Wamble is the leader and the venue is Bowery Ballroom.

This band was excellent! They played 2 sets and an encore, ending at about 11:30. It was such a great show!

David Grisman was the star, hands down. I liked the fiddle a lot, also. I thought the rest of them were good from the start. Gradually they grew on me and I liked them more and more as the night went on. The wine got better and better at the same time. It was a great time!

From the listing:

About DAVID GRISMAN BLUEGRASS EXPERIENCE

David Grisman/Keith Little/Jim Nunally/Chad Manning/Samson Grisman

For the past few years, one of the best-kept secrets of the Bay Area music scene was a David Grisman Bluegrass Experience show. With lines stretching for blocks, it would be standing room only to hear this amazing band. Now at last, East Coast audiences can hear David Grisman and his stellar group of Bay Area bluegrass musicians for a special showcase of DGBX - The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience.

For one night only in NYC, the band including Keith Little (Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton, the Country Gentlemen) on 5-string banjo, guitar and vocals, Jim Nunally (John Reischman & the Jaybirds) on guitar and vocals, Chad Manning on fiddle, Samson Grisman on bass and of course, David Grisman on mandolin and vocals, will perform in the intimate setting of City Winery.

TICKETS ARE VERY LIMITED

The same titled CD opens with a dynamic version of the Monroe Brothers' "I'm Rollin' On." The DGBX trio wails on the Carter Family classic, "Engine 143" as well as a unique bluegrass interpretation of Charlie Poole's "Baltimore Fire." Jim Nunally's renditions of "Down the Road" and "Ruben's Train" would make Flatt & Scruggs proud while Keith Little's eloquent delivery of both "Dream of the Miner's Child" and "Are You Afraid to Die?" (highlighted by Samson Grismanís bass solo) pay heartfelt homage to the Stanley Brothers. Rounding out this traditional bluegrass program are the Grisman favorites, "Dawggy Mountain Breakdown" (the popular theme from radio's Car Talk show) and the ever popular "Old and in the Way."

ABOUT DAVID GRISMAN

For over 45 years, mandolinist/composer David Grisman has been busy creating "dawg" music, a blend of many stylistic influences (including swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy) so unique he gave it its own name. In doing so, David has inspired a whole new genre of acoustic string instrumental music —with style and virtuosity, while creating a unique niche for himself in the world of contemporary music.

Praised for his mastery of the instrument as well as his talents as a composer, bandleader, teacher and record producer by the New York Times, David’s role as an acoustic innovator continues to grow. After recording for several major and independent labels, Grisman founded his own company, Acoustic Disc, which he runs from his studio in northern California. After launching the label in 1990, David entered the most prolific period of his distinguished career, producing over 60 critically acclaimed, sonically superior recordings of acoustic music (five of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards).

David discovered the mandolin as a teenager growing up in New Jersey, where he met and became a disciple of mandolinist/folklorist Ralph Rinzler. Despite a warning from his piano teacher that it wasn't a "real" instrument, 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 proliferating folk music scene of the early 1960s.

In 1963 Grisman made his first recordings as an artist (the Even Dozen Jug Band - Elektra) and producer (Red Allen, Frank Wakefield and the Kentuckians - Folkways). In 1966, Red Allen offered David 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.

David'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. In the meantime, his burgeoning career as a session musician gave him experience playing other types of music and opportunities to stretch the boundaries of the mandolin. His 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 , Earl Scruggs, Martin Taylor, James Taylor and Doc Watson. David's unique instrumental style found a home in 1974 when he formed the Great American Music Band with fiddler Richard Greene. "Nothing against singers," said David, "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 rest is string band history.

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