Grisman Creates Mandolin Magic

David Grisman lives out there on the fringes, where the most interesting American music is made.

Grisman plays the mandolin, a humble craft which he has elevated to an art form. Almost singlehandedly, he widened the instrument’s scope: Few idioms escape his attention, and he has crafted a mongrel fusion of bluegrass, gypsy, jazz and Latin that he calls Dawg music.

On Monday, Grisman will play Dawg music at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater with the superb Scottish guitarist, Martin Taylor.

Taylor is only the latest of Grisman’s notable collaborators. More famous pairings include his work with jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli and rocker Jerry Garcia.

His own David Grisman Quartet has been a fertile breeding ground: Alumni include Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor, Mike Marshall of the Modern Mandolin Quartet and violinist Darold Anger of The Turtle Island String Quartet.

The group, wildly eclectic, has played at folk, jazz and bluegrass festivals.

Grisman picked up the mandolin as a New Jersey teenager and got his first job in 1964 with Red Allen and the Kentuckians, a bluegrass outfit. In 1968, Grisman discovered jazz and tried to switch to alto sax; when the instrument proved too frustrating, he vowed to “take the mandolin places it had never gone before.”

In 1974, Garcia hired him to play on “Old and In the Way,” one of the best-selling bluegrass albums of all time. His playing is fairly conventional on that record, but he went on to work with Grappelli, who had cut the seminal “Hot Club of France” LP with gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt in the 1930s.

His own quartet always harbors elements of that lilting style which sounds effortless but demands discipline and attention from the players. Like jazz and bluegrass, the music relies on tightly interwoven instrumental parts and swings with an intensity that belies its acoustic calm.

Though not widely known in this country, Taylor has earned a reputation as one of the world’s premiere jazz guitarists. Influenced early on by Reinhardt, he caught fire after hearing the bebop piano players, especially Art Tatum.

A musician since the age of 4, Taylor made his professional debut at 15, when he played the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II. He has collaborated with Grappelli and bluegrass violinist Vassar Clements. In 1985, he teamed up with clarinetist Buddy de Franco to cut “Groovin.”

Taylor and Grisman met while both were touring with Grappelli. Since then, they have cut three records together, “Tone Poems II,” “Dawg Grass/Dog Jazz” and “Acoustic Christmas.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT David Grisman and Martin Taylor will perform at 8 p.m. Monday at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater. Tickets are $17.50, available at Street Music in Spokane; Eklektos Gallery, Java Adagio and Eichardt’s Pub in Sandpoint; the Long Ear in Coeur d’Alene, and Bonner’s Books in Bonners Ferry.