Jack Grassel

Jack Grassel

Jack Grassel (born September 3, 1948) is an American jazz guitarist, teacher, and author from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

His teachers included guitarists Tal Farlow, George Van Eps, Billy Bauer, Jimmy Wyble, George Pritchett, Don Momblow, saxophonist Joe Daley, and pianist Ted Ashford.

Early years

The oldest of four boys, Grassel was born September 3, 1948 in Milwauke. Seeing him struggle as a child to stretch his fingers on the piano keys, his father gave him an accordion and lessons. By age four, he was touring as a solo act with the Bar o' Ranch variety show. He appeared on television talent shows. Starting in 1958, he won the Wisconsin State Music Festival three times. At age ten, he added a drummer and began playing weddings and dances with his duo.

He purchased a bass guitar to play professionally two nights per week in the rock band The Triumphs. Modern Music Center hired him at the age of thirteen to teach piano, bass, and accordion. At the end of the decade, he was performing seven nights a week in dance clubs with The Rivieras, a rhythm and blues band that performed songs by James Brown and Bobby Bland.

In 1966 at seventeen, exhausted from performing, he quit playing and enrolled in Pharmacy School at the University of Wisconsin. But his mind returned to music. He began to visit a record shop to learn jazz history from the clerk, Mitch Covic. A turning point came in 1968 when he attended his first jazz concert: Charles Lloyd with Keith Jarrett and Paul Motian. He spent his food allowance on jazz records, finding music more interesting than school. When he returned to playing music, he bought a guitar, practiced fifteen hours a day for six months, and fell asleep at night with the guitar in his hands.

Professional career

Billy Bauer and Jack Grassel, Long Island, New York, 2001

Grassel's first employment as a guitarist came in 1970, playing the teen bar circuit with the rhythm and blues band The Chevrons. When he was twenty-one he formed the jazz rock band Matrix, which worked until 1974. With Matrix he recorded the first album of his compositions. His teaching accelerated in 1971 when he secured a job designing the jazz guitar degree program at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He wrote his first two books to challenge his advanced students.

He was called to audition for the show Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. When the first-call guitarists were unable to play the challenging music, Grassel succeeded. Hearing of his music skills, musicians touring the area asked to hire him. Among them Anna Marie Albergetti, Carol Channing, Tom Jones, Trini Lopez, and Al Martino. He also accompanied comedians such as Pete Barbutti, Bob Hope, Jay Leno, Bob Newhart, and Jerry Van Dyke.

He became a guitarist for the Barnum and Bailey Circus band and the Holiday on Ice Orchestra, in addition to performing with symphony orchestras conducted by Lukas Foss and Kenneth Schermerhorn. As a studio musician he performed jingles on radio and television. He played with a radio show band in the morning, taught at the conservatory or performed in elementary schools in the afternoon, played Broadway shows in the early evening and with his jazz trio in clubs at night.

Jill Jensen and Jack Grassel at Caroline's Jazz Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2002

With a family to support, Grassel turned to teaching music and playing jazz locally. He worked with Rosemary Clooney, Slide Hampton, Stanley Jordan, and Ed Thigpen, and Nancy Wilson. He created the Occupational Music degree program at Milwaukee Area Technical College and wrote the books Big Ax and Super Ax. He formed Frozen Sky Records. As a result of the first two records of his compositions "Magic Cereal" and "If You're Too Crazy", he was featured in the New Talent section of Guitar Player magazine and became a contributing writer.

During the 1990s Grassel played jazz seven nights per week in duos, trios, quartets, and with the twelve-piece Chuck Howard Superband. He played duets on classical guitar in concert with Luciano Pavarotti. From 1990–1993 he studied with George Van Eps, working on solo guitar technique, and recorded his first album, Solo Burner. From 1994–1998 he studied with Tal Farlow, who recorded some of their sessions, which Grassel released on the album Two Guys with Guitars. To facilitate studying with Farlow in New Jersey while living in Wisconsin, Grassel secured a teaching job at the National Guitar Workshop in nearby Connecticut.

At the end of the decade, he invented an instrument he named the "SuperAx" which contained both guitar and bass guitar strings. His friend, guitarist Kirk Tatnall, built one, too, and they recorded the album Live at the Uptowner with their hybrid instruments. Working part-time for music publisher Hal Leonard, Grassel wrote the music books Jazz Guitar Favorites, Jazz Guitar Standards, and Jazz Guitar Classics.

Jimmy Wyble, Jack Grassel, and Sid Jacobs at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood, California, 2009

The Hofner guitar company hired Grassel to record a promotional album, Guitar Smoke, with the Hofner Jazzica guitar. The album was included with the purchase of a Jazzica guitar.

In 2000, readers of Guitar One magazine voted Grassel "one of the 10 best guitarists in America." He married vocalist Jill Jensen, and they recorded two albums: It's About the Music, which received three Wisconsin Area Music Industry nominations, and Seems Like Dreams. They performed in clubs during the week. Grassel wrote more books, Power Practicing, Brain Training, and 131 Axercises, and recorded the DVD Top 20 Jazz Guitar Lessons.

In 2004, Grassel became ill from a near-fatal staph infection. His body, heart, brain, and nervous system were damaged, and he stopped playing music for many years. After regaining his skill, he was too weak to continue teaching at Milwaukee Area Technical College, so he quit.

In September 2010, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music presented a concert of Grassel's compositions, commemorating the fortieth anniversary of his first composition performed there. At the beginning of 2011, seldom leaving home, he began giving lessons with Skype to guitarists around the world.

He teaches at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles and plays concerts with Jensen. They released the album Live at the Carlton Grange, commemorating three and a half years of employment.

Technique and influence

Grassel comes from a family of musicians. His grandfather played mandolin, his great-uncle the accordion. His aunt Adeline led the Star and Her Five Points band during the 1930s and '40s. His father played trumpet and his brother plays piano.

He developed his own techniques of playing melody, chords, bass, and percussion to sound like three guitarists simultaneously. He combines standard picking technique with classical finger techniques. To avoid sounding like other guitarists, he refrained from listening to any music produced with a guitar for ten years from 1971–1981.

Equipment

Grassel uses the Raezer's Edge Jack Grassel model JG-10 speaker cabinet. He plays the Jack Grassel Artist model JG-1 guitar marketed by Smocke Guitars

Awards and honors

• Showcase for new talent, Guitar Player magazine, 1986
• Named one of Guitar One magazine's Best Guitarists, 2000
• WAMI award: Jazz artist of the year 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2008; Guitarist of the year, 1994, 2003, 2007

Discography

• Solo Burner (Frozensky, 1993)
• Christmas Presence (Frozensky, 1998)
• Guitar Smoke (Frozensky, 2001)
• Live at the Uptowner (Frozensky, 2002)
• Thunder Stones (Frozensky, 2002)
• Matrix (Frozensky, 2003)
• Two Guys with Guitars with Tal Farlow (Frozensky, 2004)
• Ghost Ridge (Frozensky, 2006)
• 10 (Frozensky, 2006)
• Magic Cereal (Frozensky, 2007)

Bibliography

• 1974 – Guitar Seeds
• 1976 – Monster Chops
• 1992 – Power Practicing
• 1994 – Big Ax
• 1996 – Super Ax
• 1998 – Jazz Guitar Favorites
• 1998 – Jazz Guitar Classics
• 1998 – Jazz Guitar Standards
• 2004 – Brain Training
• 2004 – 131 Axercises
• 2008 – 70 Jazz Compositions
• 2008 – Top 20 Jazz Guitar Lessons (DVD)