Light On Dark Water

52 Guitars: Week 13

Alex de Grassi.

The term "New Age music" has long since become somewhat pejorative outside of the quasi-religious circles which supplied its name. But there was some very good music that more or less fit that category. There were three guitarists who appeared on the Windham Hill label (more or less synonymous with New Age)  in the late '70s and well into the '80s who were and are very widely admired: William Ackerman (the label's founder); Michael Hedges; and Ackerman's cousin, Alex de Grassi.

de Grassi's Slow Circle was the first of these I heard, and I think still my favorite. If I remember correctly, I bought it in a guitar shop mainly because I was intrigued by the cover. Which sounds a bit odd now, so maybe I don't remember correctly–perhaps there was also something I'd read, or a recommendation from the shop. That would have been around 1980 or 1981. I'm pretty sure I had not heard the term "New Age" and would probably not have found it appealing if I had.

What I do remember very clearly is that I loved the music. de Grassi has an unusual style constructed of arpeggios that move in a sort of slowly flowing dance. The harmonies are somewhat atypical for guitar, at least for non-classical guitar, enabled by non-standard tunings.  I haven't heard the album for many years, but I found on listening to these clips–the first and last tracks from Slow Circle–that they sound as fresh and wonderful as they did more than thirty years ago. I'm afraid the sound quality on these live performances isn't so great; the guitar sounds a bit wobbly. That's too bad because the sound of the LP is stunning. I must delve into the closet where the LPs reside behind a rack of coats and listen to it again.

 

 

 

My apologies to midwesterners who at the moment probably regard snow with horror. Clearly de Grassi was thinking of a welcomed snowfall.

Slow Circle is out of print. Windham Hill was bought by BMG some years ago, and holds the rights to this and other Windham Hill recordings. I learn from de Grassi's web site that BMG won't reissue the recordings, and they won't relinquish the rights. Nice folks. I would be pretty enraged if I were one of the artists whose work had been made inaccessible that way. Amazon shows used copies of the LP at reasonable prices, of the CD at not-so-reasonable ones: 

WowLookAtThatThirdPrice

Maclin Horton
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9 responses to “52 Guitars: Week 13”

  1. Charles Kinnaird

    LOVE Alex de Grassi!!

    Reply
  2. Mac

    Do you mean this is your first hearing? Or that you’re already a fan?
    As it turned out I didn’t get time this weekend to fetch Slow Circle out of the shelf and listen to it. I’m looking forward to it, though. I have a couple of other albums by him, and they’re good, but they’ve never grabbed me like it does.

    Reply
  3. Rob G

    I like DeGrassi but I’ve always liked Ackerman more, esp. the first two albums. They always struck me more as folk than “new age.” These are probably the only Windham Hill records I still listen to, other than one piano album by a guy whose name escapes me right now (not George Winston). Philip something-or-other, I think. At one point a couple musical friends and I probably had at least fifteen W.H. records between us.

    Reply
  4. Mac

    Funny you should mention that, because I was just browsing around YouTube looking for some Ackerman stuff and was confirmed in my suspicion that he went New Age in the bad sense after his first few albums. I like those first two much better than any of the later stuff I’ve heard.

    Reply
  5. Rob G

    Yes, his stuff got more ambient (for lack of a better word) and less truly musical. I thought the melodic sense on his first two records was really strong.
    The pianist I was thinking of was Philip Aaberg.

    Reply
  6. Mac

    Can’t remember ever having heard Philip Aaberg. Like 90% of the people listening to music in the early ’80s or so, I have George Winston’s December. Haven’t heard it for a long time.
    I would just say bland rather than ambient.:-) Yes, the melodies on his first records are his strong point.

    Reply
  7. Rob G

    Aaberg was both a little bit more jazzy and more structured than Winston — not as much “noodling.”
    And yes, ambient does not always equal bland! Point taken. 😉

    Reply
  8. Charles Kinnaird

    I have a couple of de Gassi’s later albums, and have featured his “Western” from Southern Exposure on my own blog (I do music every Monday). This post got me wanting to hear Slow Circle. The local library didn’t have it, but I did manage to finally find a “like new” cassette tape on line for $9.00. It came in the mail yesterday – looking forward to hearing it!

    Reply
  9. Mac

    To my ears nothing else I’ve heard of de Grassi’s grabs me like Slow Circle does, but obviously others may disagree. I’d be surprised if you don’t at least like it, though.
    I’d forgotten, if I’d ever noticed, that you have a blog–often I don’t notice when commenters names are links. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.

    Reply

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