Episode 60 – Alex de Grassi
After a long unexpected hiatus, SnapSessions! presents Episode 60, featuring an interview with Grammy-nominated guitarist Alex de Grassi and a SnapSessions! tribute to San Francisco Giants star centerfielder, Willie Mays—”the Say Hey Kid”, just maybe the greatest baseball player of all time.
Alex de Grassi has been a guitarist since his early teens, growing up in a musical family in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1950s and 60s. Dropping the trumpet for the guitar after being exposed to the Beatles, the Stones and Mississippi John Hurt, de Grassi attended UC Berkeley in the early/middle 70s and took a lot of music theory along with his Economic Geography major. This led to classical guitar as well as ongoing labors as a street musician from Berkeley and SF to London, and then finally a connection with Windham Hill records and to his first album, Slow Circle, which came out in 1979. Since then, Alex has released a total of 16 albums dabbling in a variety of styles from Southern soul to Bolivian folk music to classical lullabies to the Woody the Woodpecker theme. In 1998 he was nominated for a Grammy for his album Water Garden. In addition, we talk to Alex about working with neuroscientist Daniel Levitin on his “Your Brain on Music” series, musing on the possible existence of a music gene. There’s also an appreciative nod to some recent work he’s done with the Real Sarahs. And we find out just how many guitars Alex de Grassi actually owns.
SnapSessions! also pays tribute to the NY & SF Giants’ great center fielder Willie Mays who died at the end of last summer. We cover Mays’ great career, his extraordinary feats as an outfielder and hitter, and offer Doug’s personal experiences of seeing Willie play both in Seals Stadium and at Candlestick Park. In addition, we’ve uncovered some outstanding recorded highlights as well as a musical gem saluting Willie Mays from the 1950s.
Episode 60 is 1 Hour and 23 minutes long and includes an intro, our SnapSessions! Willie Mays Tribute (starts at 1:16), and our interview with guitarist Alex de Grassi (starts at 23:09).
SnapSessions! includes original music by Marshall Brown, production by Marshall Brown, Max Oatney, and Frej Barty. Voiceovers by Doug Nunn and Marshall Brown, and articles and interviews by Doug Nunn. Our SnapSessions! artist and logo maker is caricaturist, Daniel Stieglitz.
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