David Grisman Quintet
Bands / Ensembles
The David Grisman Quintet is an acoustic string band from San Francisco led by mandolinist David Grisman. The band mixes bluegrass instrumentation with jazz harmony, drawing on Bill Monroe and the 1930s swing of Django Reinhardt, a style Grisman calls "dawg music." Grisman founded the group in the fall of 1975 with Tony Rice on guitar, Darol Anger on fiddle and Todd Phillips on second mandolin who moved to bass after Mike Marshall joined on mandolin. Early bass was also played by Joe Carroll and then Bill Amatneek. By 1981 album bassist Rob Wasserman and fiddler Mark O'Connor had joined Rice, Anger and Marshall. The original lineup had largely broken up by 1984 though Grisman has continued to lead the band in quintet, quartet and sextet forms.
In the newsletter
- No. 22 Winter 2000