Don Grusin Band

Bio:

Piano in Venice

I moved to Venice last August 2007 to compose and record a piano album using the many loops and samples that I’ve collected over the past few years as my accompanying rhythm track partner. The electronica you’ll hear are grooves from every musical genre, guitar licks, voices, dancers, people clapping and singing, birds, animals, traditional percussion instruments from everywhere in the world. One of my favorite samples is the Paolo Soleri bell which was the doorbell of my recording studio-livingroom in the little house I rented on Crestmoore Place near the French Market. You’ll hear the Soleri bell on tk 11, san juan av.

My inspiration for melodies, moods, grooves came from throughout that beautiful ocean community... the beach, the carnival boardwalk atmosphere, the best air in LA, the hang with the people in local bars and restaurants and coffee shops, the neighborhood birds, dogs and cats, and in particular the contrasting personalities of the local streets for which I named the tracks.

Here are some word-pictures of the songs:

1.) rose & main. This main intersection divides Ocean Park on the north from Venice to the south. It opens with a Grusin-recognizable melody, offering a quiet and sublime feeling which in the early daylight hours define the rose & main intersection. And then that corner really starts to roar in the late-morning near Barbra Streisand’s ballet puppet and the Firehouse, the folks heading to and from Gold’s Gym.... this frenetic energy continues with people heading to the beach just 2 blocks to the west and it goes on until late at night...the chorus sections shout out that late night energy...

2.) abbot kinney blvd is the main avenue for stores, restaurants, pizza (best in LA at Abbots Pizza) and the 3/4 hump in rhythm track that I played way the traffic moves from north to south in the am, and opposite in the pm. The track has a kind of 3D acoustic sense like the street itself, stringing along with locals and tourists eyeing each other. It sits just next to residential long-time Venusians, new Asian kids on the block selling shoes and tea,...this song is an honorific gesture to Mr Abbot Kinney, the masterfully intelligent conservationist-developer of Venice in the last century.

3.) pacific av opens with a melodic theme that I thought I’d stolen from my brother Dave, but he said no...a slow thematic melody with a Nigerian Udu and vibra-slap, with dumbek drums (also known as a Darbuka Drum played by my good friend Rony Barrak from Beruit) saying hello from time to time...This narrow long street stretches from Marina Del Rey north to Ocean Park, the Venice boardwalk paralleling along a block to the west on the beach.

4.) venice blvd pulses like the spirit of locals and tourists who move along the famous street for which the great beach community is named...folks walking their dogs, going to farmer’s market on Friday mornings. This simple major to minor melody personifies the feeling I have when I’m driving, walking or riding along the blvd, the main artery to the freeways, the Westside, Hollywood, and eventually east to downtown Los Angeles. There used be a rail line in the old days that went along the blvd, all the way from downtown to the beach, that property is now developed for housing, parking lots, parks.

Member Since:

November 08, 2006

Members:

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Influences:

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Sounds Like:

My musical life has brought me close to the sense of saudade, although I can’t claim it as my own, you need to be Brasilian to do that, but I feel both an affinity and a sense of brotherhood with my musician and singer friends from Brasil, all of whom experience and gift this feeling to the rest of us.

Long ago I had the great pleasure of meeting Dom Um Ramao, Milton Nacimento, Marcos Valle, Ricardo Silveira, Laudir de Oliviera, Rubens Bassini, Oscar Castro Neves, Sergio Mendez and Gracinha Leporace, Claudio Slon, Marcio Montaroyas, Paulinho Da Costa, Otavio Baily, Ivan Linns, Flora and Airto, Gilberto Gil, Antonio Carlos, Paulo, and Daniel Jobim, Dori Nana, and Danilo Caymmi, Caetano Veloso, Simone, Djavan, Renato Braz.....and I was privileged to record and/or play live with almost everyone in this prestigious list. The gravity of contribution to music that these artists have made literally puts Brasil in the center of global music life...as if the musical equator crosses earth over Brasil and touches us all.

Recently I played in Ouro Preto at the Tudo Jazz Festival with meu irmao Oscar Castro Neves and later in Rio with my recent musical acquisitions, Totonho Villeroy, and had great time with the gang I’d not known but knew about before...Ana Carolina, Marcelo Acosta, Paula Santoro Luiz Brasil, Eduardo Neves, Gastao Villeroy, and Lincoln Cheib. There are too many stories to tell about each person for now, but I encourage you to google these artists for a beautiful adventure in music and lyrics.

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Record Label:

Don Grusin Music