Customer Reviews

David Grisman Quartet: Classic Dawg

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The DGQ line-up at this time consisted of Grisman on mandolin, Darol Anger on violin, Rob Wasserman on bass and Mike Marshall on guitar and mando-cello. This concert recording from 1983 was made at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and all four players are in great form. This was about the time of Grisman's "Dawg Jazz/Dawg Grass" recording - and the band adds steller performances of both of those tunes to some old Grisman favorites such as Cedar Hill and Dawg Funk (from Mondo Mando). Grisman was always pretty generous letting his talented employees shine individually and here Anger and Marshall rip on Marshall's "Gator's Dream" while Wasserman supplies several scintillating solos on the bass. They do a great version of the Gypsy Medley (made up of tunes Grisman wrote for the movie "King of the Gypsies" - previously recorded by the DGQ with Stephane Grappelli, the legendary partner of the ultimate Gypsy Jazz musician Django Reinhart.) They also perform "Janice" and "Dawgology" from "Hot Dawg". Grisman is a genuine musical giant, pushing bluegrass boundaries in directions not previously even considered. At the time he teamed up with Anger and Tony Rice to record the original DGQ album "innovative" doesn't even BEGIN to describe what that music sounded like compared to anything else in American Music. Although Rice had recorded perhaps the landmark album in Bluegrass History, (J.D. Crowe and the New South - on Rounder) it is reported that when Grisman played Rice a home recording of some of his music that Rice told him "That's the best music I ever heard." Grisman modeled his bands somewhat on the standard bluegrass band - without banjo - but also leaned just as heavily on the tradition of the "Quintette du Hot Club de France" of Django and Grappelli. While it had long been known that bluegrass musicians like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs were improvisational virtuosos, the DGQ ratcheted up the musicianship a whole `nother notch. After recording the "Gypsies" soundtrack guitarist Tony Rice went out on his own, replaced quickly by teenaged virtuoso Mark O'Connor. (Can you imagine being asked as a teenager to replace Tony Rice in a band that was touring in a few weeks with Grisman and Grappelli?) Anyway - with O'Connor the DGQ was a Quintette. Then when Mark left to fight it out with Steve Morse in the Dregs, Mike Marshall moved over from 2nd mandolin to guitar, even though (as Grisman himself said) Marshall could blow Grisman away on his own instrument.

So - this is a legendary lineup at the top of their game burning the fire out of some absolutely classic tunes. Get it.

Great DVD. Everybody is ON! Talent, skills, soul. Get it. Classic tunes.... Too bad Tony Rice isnt there.

Was simply fantastic, the early David Grisman Quartet were hot, and continue to be too! A must have for the David Grisman fan.

As someone who has followed Grisman's career since the early 1980's, I totally appreciate the music. The band was nothing short of revolutionary and the musicianship was/is still off the scale in every incarnation that the band has had in the last 27 years that I've been following them. That being said, there was just something about the sound quality that left me wanting with this DVD. It sounded either that it was a bad sound mix or almost that they used an omni-directional microphone in the audiance for the sound track. I yearned to hear the individual instruments clearer but it just wasn't to be. I've heard the band live more than a couple of times and this came short of that experience. Still..... much better than never experiencing them at all.