MANDOLINIST LOOKS TO LEGENDS

FOR INSPIRATION
www2.ljworld.com/news/1997/sep/04/mandolinist_looks_to_legends/
By Anne Tangeman Lawrence Journal-World
Advertisement
David Grisman blends several kinds of music into his own mongrel style.
Doc Watson, Stephane Grappelli, James Taylor, Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Merl
Saunders, Tom Paxton, Red Allen, Judy Collins.
That's just a partial listing of artists who have worked with David Grisman, master of the mandolin.
Grisman has blended various kinds of music into his own mongrel style, called "Dawg" music and
showcased by his group, The David Grisman Quintet. He's a producer and musical archivist as well,
heading up his own Acoustic Disc record label.
The David Grisman Quintet -- including guitarist Enrique Coria, flutist Matt Eakle, percussionist-violinist
Joe Craven and bassist James Kerwin -- will be coming to Lawrence on Sept. 11 for a show that's certain
to be an eclectic mix of acoustic instrumental music.
Here's what Grisman had to say during a recent phone interview:
You've worked with legendary performers in the past like Doc Watson, Stephane Grappelli and Jerry
Garcia. Is there one particular artist who made an impression on you?
They all made great impressions, you know. I've never really played favorites. I think Jerry (Garcia) and I
had a close relationship. We were of the same milieu, so to speak. That was a special relationship.
Is there anyone you haven't worked with yet that you'd like to?
Yeah, but most of them are dead. I would have liked to have played with Miles Davis. I think the mandolin
is a place he never went. I used to be more into hypothetical situations, but after a while it gets into human
relationships and basically you could pick out the world's greatest musician and get together with him and
nothing would happen. It's chemistry, really.
In your music, you've taken a look to the past and really made something new ...
Well, I don't think there is anything new. It's all been done before. There's an old saying: "There's nothing
new under the sun." It might come out different, but I'm not really doing anything new. To me, I'm just
playing a variety of music on an instrument that hasn't been heard that much, relatively speaking.
What about the use of the mandolin today?
The mandolin is much more common today than it ever has been. I think it's gained a certain amount of
respect. There are a number of younger players that are really doing great things.
Do you think younger people are more interested in older music these days?
I don't like to put time frames on music. I think it's either good or bad, and with music, usually time is a
necessary benefit. Passing some kind of music off as old is a disservice. I think they need to study what
has gone on before them.
There's an old saying -- I'm full of old sayings -- "There's nothing as old as the continuous desire to be
new." Jazz, for example. I don't think I hear jazz going anywhere since the '50s. The same thing with
bluegrass, really. These were forms of music established by geniuses and really there haven't been any
new geniuses in jazz or bluegrass. There are talented people who have really copied what's gone on
before them and they're doing it, but it's not going anywhere that it's not already been. Not that I can hear.
Can you tell me about your record label, Acoustic Disc?
I'm trying to wrap up the next two projects, which are by great mandolinists of the past: Jethro Burns -- a
second volume of his last recordings called "Bye Bye Blues" -- and a two-CD set of a mandolinist named
Dave Appollon. He was really the first guy to do everything that I do. He was a Russian immigrant who had
a career in vaudeville in the '20s and '30s. He didn't make that many recordings, but I've amassed almost
everything that he did -- 51 tracks on a two-CD set.
He was a virtuoso, an amazing mandolinist technically. He also played all kinds of music, from popular to
jazz to Latino to blues. I really think that's pretty much what I do, but he's in his time and I'm in mine.
I think it's important that people know what went before. They say that "good composers borrow and great
composers steal."
You really are full of old sayings.
Well, I don't want anything attributed to me. It's hard to get past these axioms.
Would you consider yourself an innovator?
I don't try to think about what I am. I'm just doing what I feel motivated to do. I'm not really concerned about
defining what that is. Somebody's new news is somebody else's old news. Everything's relative. To some
people I may be innovative, to others I'm a copycat. Who knows? That's something for somebody else to
decide.
I'm just trying to do my job and I'm enjoying it.
Copyright 2014 The Lawrence Journal-World. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We strive to uphold our values for every story published.