Music has remained a generational thread running through Alex de Grassi’s life. Although he acquired his command of the guitar chiefly on his own, his grandfather performed on violin with the San Francisco Symphony while his father pursued a career as a classical pianist. Equally formative were his connections to Windham Hill, the label that helped define contemporary instrumental music. Beyond ranking among its most accomplished and continually compelling musicians, de Grassi belongs to the Windham Hill family by blood. Following his graduation in urban geography from U.C. Berkeley and a stint playing guitar on London streets, he supported himself by mastering carpentry under the guidance of his cousin Will Ackerman, then launching a modest instrumental imprint. That relationship prompted the release of de Grassi’s debut, Turning: Turning Back, on the fledgling Windham Hill roster. Yet his contributions extended well past familial ties. Over time he emerged as a forward-thinking guitarist and composer whose command of acoustic finger-picking expanded to embrace additional techniques and global traditions. After a brief interval recording for RCA Novus he rejoined the Windham Hill circle. Journeys to Bolivia in the mid-1980s proved especially catalytic; field recordings gathered there supplied the indigenous elements first woven into his 1987 RCA Novus album Altiplano. Those same contacts also facilitated the Contemporary Orchestra of Native Instruments’ initial American release, Arawl, on the New Albion label. Subsequent projects continued to test stylistic boundaries, ranging from the guitar lullabies of 1996’s Beyond the Night Sky through a 1999 collection interpreting songs by James Taylor and the 2000 collaboration Tata Monk with world-music artist Quique Cruz. Returning to unaccompanied guitar, he examined American folk repertoire on 2003’s Now and Then: Folk Songs for the 21st Century.
