SPRING 2003 RELEASE
 Now and Then: Folk Songs for the 21st Century

Contemporary Arrangements for Guitar
The songs and rhymes we learned as kids seemed to be everywhere. We learned them from books, parents, playmates, and in schoolrooms. I eventually came to think of them as traditional folk music with set lyrics, melodies, and rhythms. In rediscovering these songs years later, I have come to appreciate the maxim that folk music is a "living" tradition and that each generation will find relevance and a way to reinterpret these songs. In that spirit, I have arranged traditional melodies to reflect the musical idioms and social climate of today's multi-cultural landscape. Thus, the cowboy classic Streets of Laredo is transformed from a waltz to 4/4 time with an urban hip-hop beat, Oh Susanna becomes a slightly demented "banjoesque" samba, and the frontier lament Single Girl draws inspiration from the horn section of an R&B band.

Here, then, is my attempt to tell a few American stories and weave a musical fabric whose threads reach through time to unite the present with the past; music for now and then.
1. Single Girl
2. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
3. Sweet William
4. Saint James Infirmary
5. Bury Me Not
6. When Johnny Comes Marching Home
7. Shortnin’ Bread
8. Streets of Laredo
9. Hushabye
10. Lay this Body Down
11. Oh Susanna



TRACKS - click on the links below to hear MP3 samples:
The result of many years of collaboration between Grammy nominated guitarist Alex de Grassi and Chilean multi-instrumentalist Quique Cruz, TataMonk brings traditional Andean instruments, rhythms, and melodic fragments into a contemporary world-jazz setting. Backed by pianist Michael Bluestein, bassist Jon Evans, and drummer Dan Foltz, with guest appearance by Jeff Beal on flugelhorn and trumpet, TataMonk features kenas, zampoñas, charangos and acoustic guitars. These eight original compositions explore fresh terrain where improvised solos blend seamlessly with such traditional South American rhythms as saya, milonga, huayño and more.

". . . a whole album of surprises. Who'd have thought that traditional Andean instruments could sound so bluesy?"

-- John Schaefer, WNYC
Sanchaly
Alba
Akamani
Auscencia
Perdidas
Encuentros
Milonguera
Tata Monk
BUY THIS CD

Available at degrassi.com, CD Street, Amazon, and most retailers.

Nominated for GRAMMY and Indie Awards in 1998, The Water Garden has earned great critical acclaim.

Guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi returns to his roots in this lush collection of original solo guitar pieces.

"He is a virtuoso of multiple melodies and string percussion..." -- Dirty Linen Magazine
TRACKS - click on the links below to hear MP3 samples:
Prelude
The Zipper
The Water Garden
Lost In The Woods
Another Shore
Cumulus Rising
Ripple
Vanishing Point
Down Below
Endless Rain
BUY THIS CD

Available at degrassi.com, CD Street, Amazon, and most retailers.