Darol Anger

Violinist Darol Anger left a lasting imprint on new acoustic music through his involvement with several ensembles. Between 1975 and 1984 he served as a central figure in the innovative David Grisman Quintet, an outfit whose fusion of folk, bluegrass, and jazz essentially established the new acoustic style while also expanding the harmonic and instrumental possibilities within traditional forms. During the late 1980s and early 1990s his tenure with the Turtle Island String Quartet introduced highly skilled improvisation and wide-ranging stylistic variety into a genre previously defined by classical structures and fully notated scores. He also helped establish the Montreux Band, a folk- and jazz-tinged ensemble that cut recordings for Windham Hill throughout the mid- to late 1980s and influenced the emergence of new adult contemporary (NAC) radio; alongside Grisman veteran Mike Marshall he launched the forward-looking bluegrass group Psychograss, which sustained the eclectic approach associated with Grisman throughout the 1990s. Rejoining forces with Marshall in the late 1990s, Anger formed the Anger/Marshall Band, an endeavor that occupied him well into the 2000s even as he pursued the Heritage Folk Music project, maintained performances with earlier collectives, created the American Fiddle Ensemble, and took on production and arranging duties for fellow musicians.