When it comes to younger generation musicians dedicated to preserving and advancing the fine art of mainstream jazz guitar culture, Pasquale Grasso has become part of the upper echelon of living practitioners. Through his precision-geared, clean-toned and tradition-steeped legacy in progress, the virtuosic Italian-born and NYC-based guitarist has gained due respect in the guitar scene--including high praises from Pat Metheny--and beyond.
After establishing himself through work with celebrated vocalist Samara Joy and a series of recordings dedicated to such jazz icons as Bud Powell (one of his heroes), Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and 2022's genre tribute Be-Bop, Grasso comes out swinging in a more varietal way on his bold new trio album Fervency, available now on Sony Music Masterworks.
With his empathetic trio-mates, bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, together since Grasso's first arrival in NYC in 2009, the repertoire spans hallmarks of jazz history, while selectively avoiding common standards. Grasso extends his masterful fretboard flights and elaborate arrangements with his custom ax by the France-based Trenier Guitars, on tunes by established bygone jazz titans, two originals (including the title track "Fervency"), and check-ins with such jewels of the jazz realm as “Cherokee” and “Milestones.”
Fervency was recorded in 2021 as part of several recording projects. The concept being musical choices that blended lesser-known tunes and a few classics. “I didn't really want to play the normal tunes,” Grasso says, “like ‘Confirmation,’ because I had already done a record with a lot of the traditional songs, the ones everybody knows. I picked a little bit from composers that I like.”
Fervency kicks off with a Powell favorite of Grasso’s, “Sub City,” from the pianist's 1958 album Time Waits. “I always loved that recording,” says Grasso. “I don't play that song too often now, but I used to play that every Monday to start every set at Mezzrow,” he says, referring to the Greenwich Village club he has regularly performed in and honed his chops and tried out new arrangements.
Also on the song list are three pieces by Tadd Dameron while his mentor and employer Barry Harris is represented by the elegant medium swing tune “And So I Love You.” Grasso burns with a particular clean heat and propulsion on the up-tempo workouts of Coleman Hawkins’ “Bean and the Boys,” Miles Davis’ “Little Willie Leaps” and “Cherokee.” Grasso’s tune “A Trip with C.C.” is another fast journey of a tune, dedicated to his girlfriend, while his ballad “Fervency” was so named after happening upon the word in an open dictionary and relating to its description as “a very strong emotion.”
Grasso had Roland open with an arco bass prelude, leading into a heartfelt balladic mode graced by “very strong emotions.” “They're very strong,” Grasso explains, “in the way when you hear Bird play a ballad, or when you hear Powell play a ballad, you get a very strong feeling. If you hear Bud play ‘Spring is Here’ or 'Moonlight in Vermont,’ with every chord, it's such a different emotion.”
Such is the nature of the tracks on Fervency, another bold example of this artist’s reverence for jazz history and interest in pushing that tradition forward. “Musically, I always feel I have work to do, so many things to practice and to learn," Grasso says. "But I have a nice life.”
FERVENCY
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2025
TRACKLIST:
1. Sub City
2. A Trip with C.C.
3. Milestones
4. Cherokee
5. If You Could See Me Now
6. Focus
7. Bean and the Boys
8. Lady Bird
9. Bag's Groove
10. And So I Love You
11. Little Willie Leaps
12. Fervency
13. Jahbero
ABOUT PASQUALE GRASSO
Pasquale Grasso was born and raised in the Italian Campania region town of Ariano Irpino, in a country which has long avidly supported jazz and produced important jazz musicians. He would hear jazz of an international sweep at the famed Umbria Jazz Festival and elsewhere. But as he got serious about jazz guitar, Grasso knew a pilgrimage to New York City was inevitable, after studying with Agostino Di Giorgio and in an influential Swiss workshop with jazz piano legend Barry Harris.
“I met Barry Harris and he lived in New York,” Grasso notes. “Since I heard the first recording of jazz, every recording that I like was made in New York City, so I always wanted to come here.”
Early in his career, there was also a barrier he faced given his passion for traditional jazz. “It was hard there to be there (in Italy) as a jazz artist, especially for the music that I like, you know--the ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. When I grew up, the fashion in Italy was very modern jazz, fusion jazz and very free jazz. People didn’t care too much about Charlie Parker or Louis Armstrong. But now it seems to be coming back because everything starts here in New York.”
Ironically, one of the significant taste-changers was Samara Joy, who he met while teaching at SUNY Purchase when she was only 16 and established a friendship and musical bond. He toured with her for three years and appeared on her ground-breaking multi-Grammy winning 2022 album Linger Awhile and her 2021 self-titled debut.
As Grasso points out, “Samara put that traditional jazz a little bit more in fashion when we did that recording that she got so famous with. Then, it went everywhere in Italy. It seems that in all Europe, the traditional jazz is taking place again.”
As he remembers, “I never listened too much to guitarists when I was growing up because my brother is a saxophone player, so we were listening a lot to the recording of Charlie Parker and Gillespie, and there's never a lot of guitar on those recordings. So I transcribed the piano parts. I really love the piano players—Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, Elmo Hope, Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum…”
Grasso has often been praised and singled out for his uncanny ability to translate the complexities of pianistic influences to the guitar. “It wasn't too complicated for me,” he says of the skill, “because I didn't really think about it. I was a kid that started so early, and I was just trying to imitate whatever I would hear. One of my best qualities as a musician is that I have a great ear,” he laughs. “I have a perfect pitch. That’s what God gave me. It is very easy for me to replicate what I hear. I just try to replicate what I was hearing and the sound that I liked."
Grasso says it's not all inspiration by piano players. He loves horn players as well. "One of my favorite musicians when I was a kid was Dizzy Gillespie," Grasso says." In fact, my dad wanted me to play trumpet. But I didn't want to--I liked the guitar better. I played trumpet a little bit. I still play, but just in my house, never outside,” he says with a laugh. “There's a lot to do with the guitar.”
One of the prominent votes of support for Grasso’s strong musical voice as a guitarist came in 2016, when Metheny sang his praises in an interview with Vintage Guitar magazine, calling Grasso “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my life.” Metheny was led to listen to Grasso at the urging of Pasquale’s producer Matt Pierson, “because they worked a lot together. One day, Metheny called me up and invited me to his apartment. And we played, we talked, I stayed there the whole day. We had a nice day together. He was always very supportive, writing me emails and saying he appreciates what I do. Of course, I'm very happy with what he said.”
2025 TOUR DATES
Grasso has several upcoming shows at Birdland and performs regularly at Mezzrow, Saint Tuesday and Tartina in New York City, plus he can be seen at SF Jazz in April and will perform at various festivals this summer. Please check his calendar for more information
