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ALEX DE GRASSI
 Bay Area native Alex de Grassi has made ten recordings of music for guitar for Windham Hill, RCA Novus, Tropo Records and other labels bringing him recognition as one of the top fingerstyle steel-string guitarists/composers of his time. Early influences of the sixties and seventies rock and blues scene, as well as an interest in British Isles folk music and the solo piano musings of Keith Jarrett, led to his first album, Turning: Turning Back (Windham Hill 1979), since named by Acoustic Guitar magazine as one of the top ten essential fingerstyle recordings of all time. His 1998 Tropo Records’ debut, The Water Garden, received a GRAMMY nomination. His interest in Andean music was sparked by three visits to Bolivia in the late eighties. During that time he collected many recordings, and worked with Arawi, a school for the preservation of native Andean instruments.
Much more information about Alex, including a downloadable press kit, is available on his website. Alex's most recent recording (due out in late spring 2003) is Now and Then:Folk Songs for the 21st Century, a new look at some familiar American folk and popular songs. |
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QUIQUE CRUZ
 A native of Chile, Quique grew up playing kena, charango, zampona and other Andean instruments in folk groups inspired by the resurgent interest in indigenous music and by the cross-cultural experimentation exemplified by groups such as Inti-Illimani and Illapu, and by the legendary Victor Jara. Several years later he brought his charango, a drum, and his homemade wood suitcase full of flutes and panpipes to Canada, and eventually to Berkeley, California. There, he co-founded Grupo Raíz in 1980 and produced their first three albums of contemporary Latin American folk music. The group toured extensively to great critical acclaim throughout Europe and North America. Later, he toured and recorded as a multi-instrumentalist with such artists as Jackson Browne, Strunz & Farah, and Kenny Loggins. His long-time association with the Berkeley cultural center La Peña, and with many Latin American musicians has made him a fixture of the Bay Area world music community. |