Jack Grassel
When he was in high school, Garrett Waite’s guitar teacher finally gave up—in a good way. “He was more of a finger-style blues player and he took me as far as he could go,” Waite recalls. “He sent me to the go-to guy for jazz guitar.
The guy to go to was Jack Grassel, and now the former master and apprentice are collaborating as a duo. And not just a guitar duo, but a two-man multi-instrumental ensemble whose repertoire spans the musical spectrum. Along with his patented triple-neck guitar, which can play the role of electric guitar, bass and mandolin, Grassel will pick up banjo, melodica and wooden flute in the course of the concert. Waite will play triple-neck guitar and melodica.
“We are 50 years apart in age, but when we play together it’s like we’re the same age,” Grassel says.
Seasoned but as youthful as someone half his age, Grassel has a long history in Milwaukee jazz as an educator (Hal Leonard is publishing his latest manual this month), performer and recording artist. He has released more than 20 albums and evolved as a composer from the initial inspiration of Thelonious Monk to embrace an even wider world. He handled jazz-rock fusion easily enough and eventually drew sustenance from Latin American and Indian music.
At their concert this Sunday, the duo will play three compositions by Grassel and two by Waite. They will explore the work by Monk, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, Jerome Kern, J.S. Bach and John Cage. And one suspects spontaneous fires will light up along the way, taking the concert in unexpected directions.
“Improvisation will tie it together,” Grassel explains. Much beloved by jazz musicians, Bach provides a feast for inventive interpretations. Cage’s “Dreams” was originally conceived to accompany the fluid movements of a Merce Cunningham dance concert.
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Waite cites Wayne Shorter as a compositional model and Steely Dan for setting a high bar. “If I'm writing a pop song, I’ll include jazz elements. If it’s a jazz-oriented composition, I’ll include rock elements,” he says. Waite is a student at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. When he’s in Milwaukee, he plays in an eclectic jazz-funk-rock combo with drummer Jeremy Reutebuch and keyboardist Joshua Catania and also collaborates with alt hip-hop artists.
Grassel has played in one lineup or another for decades at the venue of Sunday’s concert, Villa Terrace. “We could not get away with this in a club—it’s a concert setting,” he says. Waite adds, “A big thing Jack imparted on me is the importance of playing whatever you want. We play the music we’re excited about. There’s no concept behind the choices for the concert except that they are tunes we like.”
Jack Grassel and Garrett Waite perform at Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, 2220 N. Terrace Ave., on Sunday, Aug. 18, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
