Musician Spotlight: David Grisman Quintet

If you are a fan of jazz music, you should definitely take a look at the music by David Grisman Quintet. If you have never heard of this band before, it is an acoustic jazz and alternative jazz band that was founded in San Francisco in 1975 by David Grisman. The quintet draws from a number of different genres, such as the 1930’s swing by Django Reinhard and the bluegrass legacy of Bill Monroe.

Since the band formed, the members of the David Grisman Quintet have included guitarist Tony Rice, as well as multi-instrumentalists Jon Sholle, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Mark O’Connor. The band has recorded and performed with a number of different guests, with a prime example being Stephane Grapelli, the violinist.

The band has released a number of different albums over the years. The most recent album was Dawg’s Groove, which was released in 2006. They have released nine other albums aside from this. This includes the 2002 album Dawgnation, the 1996 album DGQ-20, the 1995 album Dawganova, the 1993 album Dawgwood, the 1990 album Dawg ‘90, the 1981 album Mondo Mando, the 1980 album Quintet’ 80, the 1978 album Hot Dawg, and their first album, which was the 1977 album called The David Grisman Quintet.

So, let’s find out more about the man behind the band; David Grisman. As you can imagine, David Grisman has been a continual member of the band since it started. He has widespread influence for his promotion of acoustic music, as well as, merging bluegrass, jazz, and other conventional forms of music. He is also a co-founder, composer, and noted producer of the record label called Acoustic Disc. Grisman was already paying the mandolin, saxophone, guitar, and piano by the time he was a teenager, and the rest is history, as they say.

As mentioned earlier, The David Grisman Quintet was the first album that was released. It was recorded in 1976 and then it became available for purchase in 1977. The cover of the album features a number of different instruments. This includes Bill’s 1875 Czech Flatback Bass, Todd’s 1924 Loar Gibson F-5 Mandolin, Tony’s 1935 Martin D-28 Guitar, Darol’s 1856 Guisepe Marconcine “Ferrara” Violin, and David’s 1927 Gibson F-5 Mandolin. There are eight different songs on the album, as well as two extras that were added to the CD version. The songs on the first album consisted of four songs by David Grisman; Dawg’s Rag, Pneumonia, Blue Midnite, Opus 57, and E.M.D., as well as Richochet by R. Sommers and Grisman, Fish Scale by Artie Traum, and Swing 51 by Tony Rice. The two extra songs on the CD version are 16-16 and Minor Swing, which is by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.

Here is the band performing E.M.D.:

If you want to enjoy some good jazz music, it is definitely a good idea to listen to the first album by the David Grisman Quintet. If you like what you hear, you can enjoy the rest of the albums that they have created over the years.