Guitarist Pasquale Grasso Releases New Project “Fervency” | LISTEN!

PASQUALE GRASSO
RELEASES NEW SONY MUSIC MASTERWORKS ALBUM
FERVENCY

AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 7, 2025

A BOLD EXAMPLE OF GRASSO’S REVERENCE FOR JAZZ HISTORY AND INTEREST IN PUSHING THAT TRADITION FORWARD

When it comes to younger generation musicians dedicated to preserving and advancing the fine art of mainstream jazz guitar culture, Pasquale Grasso has become part of the upper echelon of living practitioners. Through his precision-geared, clean-toned and tradition-steeped legacy in progress, the virtuosic Italian-born and NYC-based guitarist has gained due respect in the guitar scene–including high praises from Pat Metheny–and beyond.

After establishing himself through work with celebrated vocalist Samara Joy and a series of recordings dedicated to such jazz icons as Bud Powell (one of his heroes), Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and 2022’s genre tribute Be-Bop, Grasso comes out swinging in a more varietal way on his bold new trio album Fervency, available now on Sony Music Masterworks.

With his empathetic trio-mates, bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, together since Grasso’s first arrival in NYC in 2009, the repertoire spans hallmarks of jazz history, while selectively avoiding common standards. Grasso extends his masterful fretboard flights and elaborate arrangements with his custom ax by the France-based Trenier Guitars, on tunes by established bygone jazz titans, two originals (including the title track “Fervency”), and check-ins with such jewels of the jazz realm as “Cherokee” and “Milestones.”

Fervency was recorded in 2021 as part of several recording projects. The concept being musical choices that blended lesser-known tunes and a few classics. “I didn’t really want to play the normal tunes,” Grasso says, “like ‘Confirmation,’ because I had already done a record with a lot of the traditional songs, the ones everybody knows. I picked a little bit from composers that I like.”

Fervency kicks off with a Powell favorite of Grasso’s, “Sub City,” from the pianist’s 1958 album Time Waits. “I always loved that recording,” says Grasso. “I don’t play that song too often now, but I used to play that every Monday to start every set at Mezzrow,” he says, referring to the Greenwich Village club he has regularly performed in and honed his chops and tried out new arrangements.

Also on the song list are three pieces by Tadd Dameron while his mentor and employer Barry Harris is represented by the elegant medium swing tune “And So I Love You.” Grasso burns with a particular clean heat and propulsion on the up-tempo workouts of Coleman Hawkins’ “Bean and the Boys,” Miles Davis’ “Little Willie Leaps” and “Cherokee.” Grasso’s tune “A Trip with C.C.” is another fast journey of a tune, dedicated to his girlfriend, while his ballad “Fervency” was so named after happening upon the word in an open dictionary and relating to its description as “a very strong emotion.”

Grasso had Roland open with an arco bass prelude, leading into a heartfelt balladic mode graced by “very strong emotions.” “They’re very strong,” Grasso explains, “in the way when you hear Bird play a ballad, or when you hear Powell play a ballad, you get a very strong feeling. If you hear Bud play ‘Spring is Here’ or ‘Moonlight in Vermont,’ with every chord, it’s such a different emotion.”

Such is the nature of the tracks on Fervency, another bold example of this artist’s reverence for jazz history and interest in pushing that tradition forward. “Musically, I always feel I have work to do, so many things to practice and to learn,” Grasso says. “But I have a nice life.”

Photo Credit: Lawrence Sumulong

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