STEFAN GROSSMAN

www.arelmedia.com.au

ALBERT PARK YACHT CLUB PORT LOUNGE FRIDAY 30TH MARCH 2012 - 7:30PM

Finger food included in price

SHOW ONLY $ 50 at door, $40 pre-booked online at www.trybooking.com.au/19445

NOTE!! Members of our email list may book online for the special discount price of $30. Email me at address in next line for a concession code to insert at point of payment..

BOOKINGS CONTACT CLIFF ELLERY ON taxman@bigpond.net.au or PH: 03 96901233

The last opportunity on this tour for Victorians to see Stefan Grossman in a warm, intimate venue and limited capacity. The Albert Park Yacht Club is the perfect place to soak up the brilliance of Stefan Grossman.

Stefan Grossman’s name is legendary. He witnessed Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Bukka White and learned from them all. Most of all Stefan Grossman learned from the great Rev Gary Davis and he acquired his ‘Kid Future’ nickname from being able to play Willie Brown’s arrangement of Future Blues. He met John Fahey, Ry Cooder and Steve Mann. “If you could play guitar,” says Stefan, “you were accepted anywhere.

Stefan Grossman pioneered guitar teaching materials and has taught millions of people worldwide through his Kicking Mule Records, Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop and Vestapol Videos.

Last seen in Australia in 1978, Stefan Grossman brings ‘Fingerstyle Guitar - Blues, Ragtime to Beyond’ to Australia in 2012.
Stefan Grossman makes it look easy; his laid back humour abets his brilliance and one is apt to forget that the man on stage is playing some of the most difficult pieces.

Stefan has played with Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Eric Clapton and Paul Simon. After 33 years, the excitement is building throughout Australia. Stefan Grossman returns to play for you.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Herbert and Ruth Grossman. Grossman described his upbringing, in Queens, New York, as “lower middle-class”, and his parents as “very leftist”, valuing education and the arts. He began playing guitar at the age of nine, when his father bought him a Harmony f-hole acoustic guitar. Later he moved on to an archtop Gibson guitar which he played between the ages of nine and eleven, taking lessons and learning to read music. For a few years, he gave up playing but resumed again at the age of 15.[1]

Grossman’s interest in the Folk revival was sparked by attending the Washington Square Park “Hoots”, and he started listening to old recordings of artists such as Elizabeth Cotten, Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Josh White, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, Son House, Charlie Patton, Skip James, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Woody Guthrie.[2]

He took guitar lessons for several years from Rev. Gary Davis, whom he later described as “one of the greatest exponents of fingerstyle blues and gospel guitar playing” and “an incredible genius as a teacher”.[3] He spent countless hours learning and documenting Davis’s music, recording much of it on a tape recorder, and developing a form of tablature to take down his teacher’s instructions.

In the folk and country blues revival of the 1960s he was listening to Broonzy, Brownie McGhee and Lightnin’ Hopkins and beginning to collect old 78 rpm records from the 1920s and 1930s. This brought him into contact with other collectors, including John Fahey, ED Denson, Bernie Klatzko, Tom Hoskins and Nick Perls. Collecting the 78s developed into searching for the artists who had recorded them, with many successes: during the mid-60s, Grossman met, befriended and studied guitar with Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi Fred McDowell and other major blues artists.

In 1987 Grossman returned to live in the US. He toured much less and began to consolidate his various teaching and instructional materials under the roof of one company, Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop, working at first in cooperation with the Shanachie Records company .

Stefan Grossman resumed touring in 2006, since when he has appeared in Europe and Japan as well as the US. He is a frequent visitor to England (where he has family) and conducts well-attended guitar workshops as well as giving concerts. He remains a market leader in making instructional materials available in many formats, most recently online: the Guitar Workshop has its own YouTube channel where clients can sample the wares available. Music CDs and DVDs now come with a pdf file of the music and tablature instead of a booklet.

In 2008 C. F. Martin & Company honoured Stefan Grossman with a Custom Edition guitar, the HJ-38 Stefan Grossman Custom Signature Edition, adding his name to an illustrious list of guitarists who have been so honoured.

Grossman’s principal (acoustic) guitars are a 1930 Martin OM-45 and a Martin HJ-38. In the past, he has also played a Martin OM-28, “Euphonon” and “Prairie State” guitars.