David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Hamilton de Holanda - CD reviews
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
RECORDINGS
March 9, 2007
David Grisman Quintet: Dawg's Groove (Acoustic Disc)
Mike Marshall/Hamilton de Holanda: New Words (Adventure Music)
by David Royko
David Grisman, or “Dawg,” formed his first quintet three decades ago, and at the time, Django Reinhardt’s Quintet of the Hot Club of France seemed to be Grisman’s influence most often cited by critics. Through the years, the David Grisman Quintet (and at times, Quartet) has gone through major changes, and the current DGQ bears only a passing resemblance to the all-strings line-up of the original, with flute and drums in place of fiddle and second mandolin. Grisman has also focused his gaze more intently on Latin America and jazz for inspiration, and it all comes together beautifully on Dawg’s Groove. From haunting Grisman originals like “Blues for Vassar” and “Le Grande Guignole,” to flutist Matt Eakle’s jaunty “My Friend Dawg,” this band grooves from start to finish. Mandolinist Mike Marshall was a key member of the quintet in the all-strings years, and has gone even further than the Dawg in his exploration of music south of the border. Brazilian Hamilton de Holanda is a master of the mandolin-like 10 string bandolim, and New Words finds the two sharing common ground as well as pulling one another into their musical worlds in this disc of stunning mandolin/bandolim duets. A DVD is included, in case you want to see them in action, doing things with 18 strings that few could dream of, let alone pull off.