While eating at one of the island’srestaurants, they were treated to a performance by an agile-fingered jazzguitarist, an Argentinean called Guillermo Espinasse. “I went back to ourhotel, got my guitar and sat in with him,” Grassel says. And Grassel returnedto the Mexican island again and again in the months to come, sometimes giggingwith Espinasse along the Riviera Maya. On one of those trips, the twoguitarists recorded an album, El Refugio.The CD has just been released on Grassel’s Frozen Sky label.
ElRefugio is a collection of jazz and pop standardsperformed as guitar duets. The opener, a mellifluous version of “Tequila,”echoes Les Paul in a jazz mood. The usually melancholy “Autumn Leaves” becomesa dexterous romp, rhythmic and propulsive, playing the melody from all sides.“These were songs we had in common. We had language and cultural barriers,”Grassel explains. “We had to pick the songs we both knew.
“Guillermo plays the whole guitar, theway I can play, with bass and chords at the same time,” he continues. “Thismeans we can play jazz without a bassist or drummer. I’ve seldom come across aguitarist as good as Guillermo.”
Espinasse studied with Gypsy guitaristOscar Aleman, a contemporary of Django Reinhardt, before pushing off to New York. Although heonce played with Jaco Pastorius, he was defeated by the cold climate and theEnglish language, and returned south to settle on relatively remote IslaMujeres.
ElRefugio is not the only new release on Frozen Sky. Herein Milwaukee,Grassel recently reissued one of his finest LPs on CD, a blazingly venturesomeband recording called Magic Cereal,featuring serrated guitar runs Robert Fripp might envy over a hard-hittingfusion ensemble. On the live circuit, Grassel remains busy, though not at thepace of the past. “In 1982 I played 514 gigs. In 2008, only 137,” he saysmatter-of-factly. Opportunities for musicians to play for pay have shrunk likethe polar ice since the days when Grassel sometimes worked from 9 a.m. tomidnight.
JackGrassel and Jill Jensen perform 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 20 at Carleton GrangePub’s Sunday jazz brunch, and 7-10 p.m. Sept. 25 at the HobNob in Racine.
