February 21, 2008 issue
Acoustic Guitar Master Alex de Grassi Plays Hayes Center March 8
Story by Anna Oakes
One of the upcoming artists at the Hayes Performing Arts Center is appealing to audiences on multiple levels: his guitar playing is sonically pleasing to the casual listener and technically inspiring to musicians in the know.
Alex de Grassi, known worldwide as one of the top fingerstyle, steel-string guitarists, will perform at the Hayes Center on Saturday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. de Grassi will perform a solo set of original instrumental pieces.
Billboard praised de Grassi for his “intricate finger-picking technique with an uncanny gift for melodic invention.” His trademark is the ability to create a highly orchestrated sound in his solo guitar music, weaving together melody, counter-melody, bass, harmony, rhythm and cross-rhythms, his website says. His 1998 release The Water Garden was nominated for a Grammy award.
The artist was born in Yokosuka, Japan, but raised in the San Francisco Bay area. For de Grassi, the affinity for string instruments runs in the family. His grandfather led a string quartet and was a violinist with the San Francisco Symphony. His father was trained in classical piano and his mother was a jazz aficionado.
“The two recordings I heard the most as a child were Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and the Louis Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald version of Porgy & Bess,” de Grassi said on his website.
de Grassi first learned to play the trumpet, but he discovered the guitar at age 13, learning folk, blues and popular styles. He is largely a self-taught musician but has studied jazz guitar with noted instructor Bill Thrasher. In addition, de Grassi has studied jazz piano and composition.
He has released multiple records since his first release, Turning: Turning Back, in 1978. His latest album is a collaborative effort with bassist Michael Manring and percussionist Chris Garcia; they call themselves deMania. Their self-titled album was released in 2006.
He has toured in Europe, Japan and throughout North America, playing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Interlochen Fesitval, the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Belfast International Festival.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $14 for students. For more information, call 828-295-9627 or click to www.brcac.org.
Want To Go?
Date: Saturday, March 8
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $20 adults/$14 students
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