Jazz Articles

Tommy "GCP" Emanuel & David "Dawg" Grisman: Pickin'

by Matt Hooke
September 1, 2018

Listening to Pickin' begs why it took so long for guitarist Tommy Emmanuel and mandolinist David Grisman to collaborate. The album is not a mere showcase for the duo's considerable technical abilities but is a showcase for Grisman's phenomenal songwriting. Grisman wrote every song on the album except the standard “Sweet Georgia Brown," and the Australian drinking song “Waltzing Matilda." The album has Grisman's “Dawg Music" style, a unique mix of bluegrass, jazz, and folk, flowing through its veins. Emmanuel, ...

Tiny Moore & Jethro Burns: Back To Back

by Michael P. Gladstone
April 7, 2005

In October of 2004, the thirteen alternate takes of this album were discovered by label owner/master mandolinist David Grisman, who provided the material to augment this reissue of the original 1979 session. It was a first meeting for the two best-known mandolin players largely known for their respective work in country music.

Tiny Moore, who died in 1987, performed as a regular with Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys doing Western swing in the late 1940s and early ...

George Barnes Quartet: Don

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2003

One cannot help experiencing the warmth and friendliness of this recording. Session guitarist George Barnes could not seem more real than when he bantered with the crowd at the Concord, California's Willows Theater in the Summer of 1977. Don’t Get Around Much Any More was to be Mr. Barnes’ last recording, as he died from a heart attack a mere two weeks later. Warmth and friendliness, I suspect that this is what Acoustic Disc founder David Grisman strove for when ...

David Grisman & Denny Zeitlin: New River

by David Adler
September 1, 2001

This set features two eclectic Californians, mandolinist David Grisman and pianist Denny Zeitlin, in a lively and unusual duo setting. The contrast between mandolin and piano couldn’t be greater, of course. Zeitlin’s orchestral playing, with its expansive timbral range and resonating low end, does most of the heavy lifting. Grisman’s instrument has its inherent limitations — tiny neck, circumscribed harmonic capacity, somewhat tinny sound. But Grisman is a master at wringing the unexpected from those eight strings. Not only does ...

Frank Vignola: Blues for a Gypsy

by David Adler
September 1, 2001

With this CD, Frank Vignola turns in an exquisite set of solo acoustic guitar music. It’s intended as an oblique tribute to Django Reinhardt, sort of picking up where Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine left off. Vignola, however, plays only two Reinhardt compositions, “Tears" and “Manoir De Mes Reves." And he starts off with something most unusual: a rubato treatment of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee" that ultimately winds up to an old-fashioned swing tempo (perhaps the first solo version of ...