West Coast JazzMando field reporter Wilson Drysdale weighs in with a review of the California Tradidional Music Society May 5th concert of electric mandolin jazz pioneer, Michael Lampert and Blues curator and master, Rich Del Grosso held this last weekend:

This concert was held in the small, warm building of The California Traditional Music Society. Michael Lampert opened for Rich Del Grosso with a three piece band - bass, drums and electric mandolin. Rich sat in on guitar for 3 or four tunes. Michael's set focused on blues and most of the tunes were penned by him. He played with a very contemporary feel and great tone. The rhythm section was outstanding. Rich Del Grosso blended well with the band, and overall, it was a great example of contemporary blues with electric mandolin as the dominant solo instrument.

As the concert was billed as a Night of Blues Mandolin, Rich Del Grosso took the audience back to the early proponents of blues in string bands as he educated the audience on the little known role mandolin played in string bands. He outlined the careers of Johnny Young, Howard Armstrong, and Yank Rachell while playing examples of their songs and songs he has written in their style. Rich played with an electric bass player on each song, played guitar on one or two songs and had Scott Gates - mandolin wunderkind - sit in on a Gershwin tune. After announcing that this was his "last gig in LA", Rich finished the night with a performance of a Muddy Waters song on slide mandolin, in standard tuning, that Muddy would have enjoyed.

Michael Lampert has two CDs - "Jacaranda" and " Blue Gardenia". Rich Del Grosso has a current CD - "Get Your Nose Out of My Business". Rich has also published a book "Mandolin Blues- From Memphis to Maxwell St." which is not only a history of mandolin blues, but an instructional book/CD with more than 16 examples of historical blues and rags, or techniques for playing in the style. This book is highly recommended if you are interested in either the early repertoire, or the evolution of acoustic mandolin blues.

Wilson Drysdale

Thanks, Wilson! Must have been an amazing event!

Posted by Ted at May 7, 2007 10:15 AM