On his latest release, demania [Tropo], de Grassi combines forces with an equally virtuosic rhythm section composed of electric bassist Michael Manring and percussionist Christopher Garcia. While the band takes genre-blurring journeys through jazz, rock, Indian, and Appalachian music, part of the attraction for de Grassi was approaching some of the trio’s inherent challenges. A case in point was meshing with Manring’s “lead bass” approach that incorporates open tunings, as well as an extended range courtesy of the three-octave neck on his Zon Hyperbass.

“Michael often plays melodically, which enables me to fulfill the role of providing the harmony,” explains de Grassi. “At other times, Michael takes a more traditional bass role, which gives me real flexibility on the melodic side. Michael and I will also play melodic lines together in the head, and then break down into a rhythmic or harmonic situation with room for improvisation. Sometimes, there are sonic collisions—what Michael does cancels what I’m doing, and vice-versa. So it’s a matter of arranging the music and saying, ‘Play something more simple here,’ or ‘Just play a rhythmic pattern at this point instead of the changes.’ Working with Michael has been fantastic, because he has forced me to improve some chops I haven’t spent of a lot of time on. For example, I’ve had to learn how to play single-line stuff with better articulation and speed. After our first gig, I said to myself, ‘It’s kind of embarrassing not to be able to play nearly as fast as the bassist. I better get my act together!’”

Working with Garcia—who performs on Indian instruments such as tabla and kanjira, and the mbwata—also provided de Grassi with another unique context in which to situate his playing.

“My favorite instrumental accompaniment is percussion, but a trap set can sound pretty heavy handed with acoustic guitar,” says de Grassi. “However, because Chris focuses on hand percussion, he’s not that loud, and his playing doesn’t eat up as much of the sonic range as a trap set, which allows the subtleties and intricacies of the acoustic guitar to come through.”

The latest CD finds de Grassi performing on his new George Lowden Alex de Grassi signature steel-string and a Fred Carlson Sympitar—an acoustic steel string with 12 additional sympathetic strings. Both guitars were recorded to Pro Tools using Bruel & Kjaer 4011 condensers, a Siemens Telefunken V72 tube preamp, and a Mytek 8x96 analog-to-digital converter.

“The signature guitar is a variation on the Lowden F model,” says de Grassi. “It’s a concert-size guitar with quilted maple back and sides and a Sitka spruce top. The fretboard has less curvature and a larger radius than the standard model, because I wanted it to have some of the characteristics of a classical guitar. I also had the neck made a little deeper—and with a fuller and rounder profile—so you have more room and don’t have to close your hand when you play. The guitar’s cutaway extends to almost the 18th fret to make access to that part of the fretboard easier. To compensate for that, the lower bout is a little wider, and the waist is brought in a little bit. I specifically requested quilted maple, because I think maple guitars have more volume than those made from other woods.”

While de Grassi’s current focus is his trio work, his solo-guitar endeavors continue in concerts and workshops across the globe. His signature method of weaving myriad lines and patterns together to create the illusion of multiple guitars remains a pillar of his solo sound.

“Take one of my earlier solo pieces, ‘Turning: Turning Back,’ as an example of how I like to orchestrate music,” says de Grassi, whose most well-known pieces are transcribed in The Best of Alex de Grassi [Hal Leonard]. “The piece has a double-time section in which I play a fast rhythmic pattern. I set it up so there’s a lot of repetition of the same notes in the pattern, because the E, B, E, F, B, E [low-to-high] tuning I use lets me play them on adjacent strings with the same pitch. Some of the notes are staccato, some are sustained, and some have a rubato feel to them. Once I set up that pattern in the listener’s mind, I’ll introduce a melodic line and stop playing the pattern momentarily. Because I’ve already set up the expectation of hearing that pattern, I can move away from it for one to four beats, and play the other passing line. In the mind of the listener, the other part is still going. This is an excellent arrangement device for solo guitar. It lets you apply a lot of detail to the music, and it creates the illusion there’s much more going on in the music than what actually meets the ear.”