Sony Masterworks has announced the release the second installment
of guitar virtuoso Pasquale Grasso's digital EP series: Solo Ballads Vol. 1. The latest offering displays Grasso channeling the easygoing
gait of stride piano on a collection of ballads close to his heart.
Grasso’s new digital only EP series – which began with Solo
Standards Vol. 1 on June 28 – showcases him in the solo guitar format, where
his intensive studies of both the masters of bebop and classical guitar
technique meld into a signature mastery that is, remarkably, at once
unprecedented and evocative. The approach of the releases echoes the changing
landscape in the industry, allowing a prolific recording artist to release a
multitude of material over the course of an extended period of time.
"Although there are significant drawbacks to the music
industry's shift toward streaming, there are also great opportunities,” says
producer, manager and Sony Masterworks A&R Consultant Matt Pierson. “When
an artist’s creative impulses are very active, it’s possible to record and
release material in a more progressive way, feeding listeners music on a much
more consistent basis. In the case of Pasquale, since he’s such a brilliant
solo player with so much repertoire already under his fingers, we cut 50 extraordinary
tracks. Since I find his playing to be very addictive, my hope is that when
people get hip to him, they’ll also get hooked, and we can deliver a flow of a
variety of material over the course of a year."
But whom does it evoke? After a surface listen, Joe Pass and
his essential Virtuoso LPs might come to mind. Now listen again. The sparkling,
immaculately balanced tone; the tasteful tinges of stride and boogie-woogie
rhythm; the stunning single-note lines that connect his equally striking use of
chordal harmony—for Grasso, great solo arranging equals Art Tatum.
Many serious guitar heads have been hip to Grasso for a
while now and are aware of his jaw-dropping online performance videos, his
beautiful custom instrument – built in France by Trenier Guitars – and his
early career triumphs. In 2015, he won the Wes Montgomery International Jazz
Guitar Competition in New York City, taking home a $5,000 prize and performing
with guitar legend Pat Martino’s organ trio. Last year at D.C.’s Kennedy
Center, as part of the NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert, Grasso participated in
a special performance to honor Pat Metheny, alongside his guitar-wunderkind
peers Camila Meza, Gilad Hekselman, Dan Wilson, and Nir Felder.
His Sony Masterworks EPs showcase his sweeping abilities in
the most intimate possible setting. Here you can experience his lifetime of
listening and of challenging himself to transcend a bar set by Art Tatum so
many decades ago. Solo Monk – the next release in the EP series – will be
available on October 11, the day after Monk’s 102nd birthday. Additional EPs
are slated for future release, including Pasquale exploring the works of Duke
Ellington, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker.
It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can
only dream of, and then some. In his interview for Vintage Guitar magazine’s
February 2016 cover story, Pat Metheny was asked to name some younger musicians
who’d impressed him. “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life
is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA
Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so
difficult.
“Mostly what I hear now are guitar players who sound a
little bit like me mixed with a little bit of [John Scofield] and a little bit
of [Bill Frisell],” he continued. “What’s interesting about Pasquale is that he
doesn’t sound anything like that at all. In a way, it is a little bit of a
throwback, because his model—which is an incredible model to have—is Bud
Powell. He has somehow captured the essence of that language from piano onto
guitar in a way that almost nobody has ever addressed. He’s the most
significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”
As he’s done with many rising jazz stars, Metheny later
invited Grasso over to his New York home to jam and share some wisdom. He’s
since become a generous presence in Grasso’s life, and his assessment of
Grasso’s playing is—no surprise—spot-on.
Born in Italy and now based in New York City, the
30-year-old guitarist has developed an astounding technique and concept
informed not by jazz guitarists so much as by bebop pioneers like Powell,
Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and the classical-guitar tradition.
These days, Grasso teaches and maintains a packed gig
schedule around New York, including frequent solo performances at the popular
Greenwich Village haunt Mezzrow, where a regular Monday-night gig allowed him
to develop his solo-arranging skillset. Not that Grasso thinks his work is
done. “All [of the musicians I love are] inspiration for me to get new ideas
and form my style, because it’s still growing,” Pasquale says. “And it’s gonna
be growing until the day I die.”
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