Alex de Grassi

Alex de Grassi ( born February 13, 1952 in Yokosuka, Japan) is an American fingerstyle guitarist, who has published thirty years, numerous groundbreaking albums.

Curriculum vitae

Alex de Grassi was born in Japan but grew up in San Francisco, California, on. He studied economics at the University of California, Berkeley. After taking the exam, he turned to music. He was for a while a street musician in London until he published on his cousin Will Ackerman in 1978 his first album at the Windham Hill label. Since then he has released over 15 albums on various labels and also founded his own label, Tropo Records. His album The Water Garden was nominated for both a Grammy Award and for the Indie Award. In addition to his solo works he has with the Chilean multi-instrumentalist Quique Cruz in the band Tatamonk as well as with the experimental guitarist GE Stinson worked. De Grassi holds workshops and teaches classes and concerts that take him on several continents. In addition to his solo projects, he is touring with the group DEMANIA consisting of de Grassi, Michael Manring on bass and percussionist Christopher Garcia.

Alex de Grassi now lives in Redwood Valley near Ukiah, the capital city of Mendocino County, California.

Musical influences and background

From early de Grassi musical influences exposed: his father was a classical pianist, his grandfather a violinist in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. At 13, he learned trumpet and taught himself to play the guitar soon after himself at. Later, de Grassi Jazz Piano studied with Mark Levine and studied composition with William Mathieu and Guitar with Bill Thrasher. In his time at the Windham Hill label he met guitarist Michael Hedges, with whom he had a long friendship and who influenced him stylistically. De Grassi, however, has developed his own style, which can be seen after a short hearing one of his plays.

Game art

De Grassi is considered by many fingerstyle guitarists as one of the most virtuosic of his genre. Fast runs and arpeggios hallmarks of his style. He often used open tunings. De Grassi's compositions are characterized by unusual melodic lines and harmonies. One of his stylistic devices is the restrained use of percussive techniques by employing the guitar body in various ways as a drum.

Instruments and equipment

De Grassi plays mainly custom-made guitars. His main guitar is currently a custom Lowden F35c made ​​of maple with cedar top and a Custom Traugott R from Brazilian Rosewood with cedar top. In addition to these guitars he plays a custom McCollum baritone guitar ( with 28-inch scale length ) from Paduk with cedar top and a Custom Carlson Sympitar made ​​of maple with a cedar top.

De Grassi used at concerts generally an AKG 460 condenser microphone with a heart-shaped pickup pattern. He rarely uses a pick, which he connects to the sound system via a preamplifier Raven Lab.

Discography

Audio

Audio Compilations

Details of and

DVD, Video

Sheet Music, Books

  • Alex de Grassi Guitar Collection (1988). Hal Leonard Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7935-0303-2
  • Windham Hill Guitar Sampler ( 1994). Hal Leonard Publishing HL00694888, ISBN 0-7935-2488-1
  • Portraits of Christmas for Fingerstyle Guitar (1996). John August / Mel Bay, ISBN 978-0-7866-2669-4
  • Custom Guitars ( 2000). String Letter Publishing, ISBN 978-1-890490-29-4
  • Alternate tunings Guitar Collection, Volume 7 ( 2000). String Letter Publishing, ISBN 978-1-890490-27-0
  • The Best Of Alex de Grassi ( 2006). Hal Leonard Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4234-0724-9
  • 3 Themes for Steel- String Guitar, String Quartet, and String Orchestra: Solo Guitar Part and Score by Jeremy Cohen and Alex de Grassi ( 2007). String Letter Publishing, ISBN 978-1-890490-68-3
Yokosuka, Kanagawa Workshop (disambiguation) Ukiah, California Mark Levine (musician) Guitar tunings#Open Windham Hill Records Integrated Authority File
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