Pasquale Grasso might not be a household name, but to members of the jazz community, he’s something of a godlike figure.
Take Pat Metheny, who described the Italian-born/NYC-based guitarist as “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life.” The judges of the 2015 Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition were similarly bowled.
One judge, Bill Milkowski, said the guitarist “stunned the judges with his sheer speed, fluency and sophisticated eloquence on the instrument.”
“I’m very flattered, of course,” Grasso says, “and more than anything, I’m pleased that people I admire recognize the important aspects of what I do, like articulation and precise playing.”
One of Grasso’s overarching goals is preserving traditional jazz for younger generations.
“Unfortunately, the jazz audience is mostly made up of elder people,” he says. “I’m doing anything I can to inspire young people to listen to and embrace this music, especially in America, which is where this music was born. At my concerts, if I see people who are 20 years old, I want them to be a fan in 50 years.”
Grasso is giving them a lot of music to choose from. This year, he released not one, but two albums, both of them recorded on the same day.
There’s Fervency, a dazzling and engaging take on classics like Cherokee and Milestones that the guitarist cut with longtime bandmates bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, as well as Solo Be-Bop!, which is what it sounds like: Grasso merrily blitzing his way through gems like Stella by Starlight and Chasin’ the Bird.
“We were supposed to record Fervency in two days, but we did it in one,” Grasso says. “My producer, Matt Pearson, said, ‘Hey, why don’t you do some solo stuff? If we like it, we’ll put it out.’”
Grasso’s unaccompanied playing on Solo Be-Bop! is bravura stuff, and the guitarist stresses that there’s not nary a punch-in or comped passage to be found.
“I hate all that copy-and-paste way of making records,” he says. “If I don’t like a take, I’ll do a new one. To me, it’s not a real thing unless I can play it from beginning to end.”
- Fervency and Solo Be-Bop! is out now via Masterworks/Sony.
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
