By Arlene McKanic
Grammy Award nominee De Grassi will be playing to “A Story of Floating Weeds,” the 1934 film by Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. The job, he admits, is a bit daunting. “Not only are the people not speaking,” he said, “but there's no sound, not even background noise.” Fortunately, he has a DVD of the film that he's been practicing along to at the home he shares with his wife in Mendocino County, Calif.This will be de Grassi's third guitar festival, though he's never been to Flushing Town Hall before.”I heard it has good acoustics!” he said during a phone interview. “Even though I will use a microphone, I'll still 'play to the room,' as they say.”De Grassi usually plays a six-string steel acoustic guitar. “I started out as a kid playing folk and blues and rock-'n'-roll and got into playing finger style instead of using a pick. Over the years when I got older, I studied jazz and classical guitar.” He mostly plays his own compositions and guitar arrangements for jazz standards and folk songs. Some of his favorite works, aside from the ones he wrote, are Gershwin's “It Ain't Necessarily So,” and his arrangement for Thelonius Monk's “Round Midnight.” He recently formed a trio, DeMania, with Michael Manring on bass and Christopher Garcia on percussion.During the festival de Grassi will be playing an unusual guitar built by Fred Carlson with 39 strings in addition to his normal six-string. “He combined different instruments into one. It has harp strings and strings like a sitar,” de Grassi explained. “It's a very valuable instrument that ended up in the hands of a collector who let me borrow it.” He said that though he can hold it, as opposed to propping it up between his knees like a cello, it's challenging to play.As for his preparation, he said, “I always try to practice a little bit in a day, 20 minutes to a half an hour. When I'm at home or preparing for a recording, I can practice many hours a day, four, six, eight hours a day.” When asked what he does to protect his hands he admits his hands aren't really the problem – his neck and shoulders might give him trouble, though. “That happens to older musicians,” he said. “So I try to do a little yoga and get out and walk sometimes.”His influences include Simon and Garfunkel (“because Paul Simon is a very good guitar player”), Mississippi John Hurt, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee Lightnin' Hopkins, Leo Kottke and “a guy named John Fahey who played steel string guitar without singing.” Though he was never as enthusiastic about electric guitar, he also listened to rock artists such as Chuck Berry, Cream, the Doors and Jimi Hendrix.De Grassi took up the guitar when “I was about 12, which would have been in the mid-'60s.” He began by playing trumpet in school bands and orchestra till a friend who lived down the block in their home town of Palo Alto got a guitar. De Grassi was hooked from then on.As for the guitar festival, “tell people to come and check out the other things going on at the New York Guitar Festival,” he said. “Everything from music from Africa to the Middle East to blues and jazz and rock.”Flushing Town Hall, at 137-35 Northern Blvd., is joining Carnegie Hall and the 92nd Street Y in hosting the festival.De Grassi will be performing on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. Call 718-463-7700 ext. 222 for tickets.
