Jonathon Grasse

Jonathon Grasse is a composer, improvising electric guitarist, and music scholar based in LA. His eclectic concert music works appear on recordings released by Centaur Records ("Chamber Music" 2011), and distributed by CD Baby ("Six Compositions" 2017). His fully notated concert works compositions have been performed by Brightwork New Music, the Los Angeles Flute Quartet, the UCLA Percussion Ensemble directed by the late Mitchell Peters, saxophonist Douglas Masek, and double reed virtuoso Richard Kravchak. Guitarists Peter Yates, Scott Morris, and James Smith have concertized his works for solo guitar and ensemble. Jonathon played guitar for the LA-based improvisation ensembles Surrealestate, and Decisive Instant, and fronted others including The Native Plant Society, and Medicine Show. His CD "Phantomwise" (Acoustic Levitation, 2012) features two alternating improvising trios, formed with guitarist Cristian Amigo, drummer Gustavo Aguilar, and with flutist/vocalist Emily Hay and drummer Tom Steck. He produces the Festival of New and Improvised Music at California State University Dominguez Hills, where he is a professor of music. His 2020 book "The Corner Club" (Bloomsbury, 33 1/3 Brazil) examines the 1972 classic Brazilian LP Clube da Esquina by Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges. His book on music in Minas Gerais, Brazil is forthcoming from University Press of Mississippi.