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David Grisman Quintet/Old School Freight Train (ArtsMail article)
<p>By Jon Hartley Fox<br />
<br />
There are not many musicians who can claim to have forged a new style of music, but master mandolinist David Grisman is one of the few who can. Grisman’s “dawg music”—a genre-spanning acoustic stringband hybrid that blends bluegrass, jazz, classical, and world music into an irresistible sound—has influenced countless musicians over the past 30 years. Grisman makes his Mondavi Center debut with his award-winning David Grisman Quintet October 27. The concert will be opened by Old School Freight Train, a young, exciting bluegrass band based in Charlottesville, Virginia. <br>
David Grisman first heard bluegrass music in the late 1950s when he was a high school student in New Jersey. He was especially drawn to the music of mandolin players Bill Monroe and the lesser-known Frank Wakefield. After working with the great traditional bluegrass singer Red Allen, Grisman moved to California to play in the more rock-oriented band, Earth Opera. He also formed Old & in the Way, a bluegrass “super-group” that included Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia on banjo.<br>
Grisman formed the David Grisman Quintet in the mid-1970s and its debut recording was an instant classic. The group looked like a bluegrass band (minus a banjo) and included a couple of bluegrass stars in Grisman and guitarist Tony Rice, but the music was something new. It was all instrumental music, for starters, a format Grisman has maintained to this day. “Nothing against singers,” explains Grisman, “but it became apparent to me that I could play 90 minutes without one.” <br>
The David Grisman Quintet pioneered an accessible and improvisational style that was the meeting ground for traditional country fiddle tunes and bluegrass, the Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli, swing, klezmer, Latin music, classical, and more. After its smash debut, the DGQ recorded such popular and critically acclaimed albums as <em>Quintet ’80</em>, <em>Hot Dawg</em>, <em>Dawgnation</em>, <em>Dawg</em> <em>Jazz/Dawg Grass</em>, <em>Dawgwood</em>, and 10 years ago, <em>DGQ-20</em>.<br>
The band has been at the vanguard of acoustic music from its inception and has been a proving ground for numerous renowned musicians, from Tony Rice and violinist Darol Anger in the first band to Mark O’Connor, John Carlini, and Mike Marshall in later incarnations. Besides Grisman on mandolin, the current DGQ includes Jim Kerwin (bass), Joe Craven (percussion), Enrique Coria (guitar), and Matt Eakle (flute).<br>
Old School Freight Train—Ben Krakauer (banjo), Pete Frostic (mandolin), Jesse Harper (guitar and lead vocals), Darrell Muller (bass), and Nate Leath (fiddle)—came to national prominence about five years ago after winning high-profile band contests at the Telluride and Rocky Grass music festivals. The band has recorded two albums; the second, <em>Run</em>, was produced by David Grisman and released last year on his Acoustic Disc label.<br>
It was 30 years ago this year that David Grisman launched what the <em>Chicago Tribune</em> described as “one of the most important innovations in American music…and lifted it to the level of high art.” And to think his high school music teacher said the mandolin wasn’t even a “real” musical instrument. </p>
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