While a lot of these tunes are familiar to anyone who displays even a passing day tripper’s interest in bebop, some aren’t.
That is one ingredient, not even a vulgar fraction, of the added value on this remarkable solo set from the Italy born New York based guitar genius Pasquale Grasso.
Take what the 36-year-old does to ‘Sid’s Delight’ for instance. It’s the Tadd Dameron tune also known as ‘Tadd’s Delight’ that Fats Navarro introduced to the canon in the late 1940s and Miles Davis anointed with stardust most fully on Round About Midnight in the 1950s and others presented in all admiration as ‘Tadd’s Delight.’ Grasso, who hails from the Campania countryside of Ariano Irpino, applies the jump leads, raises the tune from the dead, lets it leg it hot foot from the tomb.
His motor’s running. The piece hasn’t been covered much in recent years – but I liked fine hammond organist Brian Charette’s raucous treatment on 2017’s Backup.
Readers happily not too raddled from the days of the swill may also, given a few clicks for kicks, recall Joe Lovano’s dextrously flamboyant nonet version released 25 years ago found on 52nd Street Themes.
Ah yes, in the mind’s eye 52nd Street the place itself in New York’s Manhattan. If this was a film documentary it would be full of images from the bebop era. All the clubs, the nightlife, the musical revolution in the air of the 1940s and 50s. Time travel, dearly dishevelled, it’s the name of the game – hardly a whodunnit, more a love in.
Another gem again not covered too much now is ‘Time Waits’ by Bud Powell. You may know, dear reader, if in from the allotment or a saunter around World of Quid, the Joshua Breakstone version from a few decades ago. It’s the one obviously to compare and contrast with most. But Grasso’s has so much more going on in terms of the sheer atmosphere of the piece. That’s part of his strength beyond the obvious swashbuckling swordsmanship of his chops.
An anti modernist perhaps you might wrongly term this incredible guitarist. Try emphasising the pros rather than the cons. He’s a pro retro-ist even if this isn’t at all, ok I’m being a bit tongue in cheek, making a foward looking retrospective. Capisch?
There’s always Hope, more of which in a minute. Among the other tunes it’s always a a pleasure when someone sensible chooses to cover Rodgers and Hart’s ‘Manhattan’. There’s also Bud Powell’s ‘Monopoly.’
For sure it’s an album big on brilliant A&R choices and the means to run with the decisions given the sheer virtuosity displayed on ‘Stars Over Marrakesh,’ a jaunty Elmo Hope tune. Hope’s ‘Happy Hour’ is here too. It’s hardly ever been covered. (The Paul Moer nostalgic trio treatment is the only one I can find.)
I’m a fan of another Italian guitarist Eleanoro Strino a bit more than Grasso truth be told even if Grasso is an even better player. But for heritage sound which is more Grasso’s thing the axeman cometh and can’t be beaten. Of his records so far on his own I have learnt more from this than anything he has done so far. There’s such beauty, such taste. The treatment of ‘Stella By Starlight’ is world class and just one of the monumental solo statements that abound.
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