Quick Wits Audio Samples

" . . . harmonious blending, exciting counterpoint melodies, unbridled solo lines, driving rhythms, and spontaneous merriment and wit . . . Grassi's propelling, sometimes primitive drumbeats, like heartbeats, collectively and individually enliven. There's amazing unity in their rhythmic revolt. Like a living, breathing organism, they expand, stretch, and compress harmoniously, sometimes humorously. Quick Wits is a flexible, free-wheeling workout that will have you wiping sweat." Nancy Ann Lee Jazz Times

"Lou Grassi's Saxtet sounds like a much larger ensemble, raucous and full of life . . . the three-sax frontline suggesting a locomotive driven by Grassi's ferocious, loud drumming. Grassi acts as a circus ringleader, presiding over often turbulent group imrovisations within structure." **** Jon Andrews Down Beat

"There's a certain positive primitivism afoot in the Grassi Saxtet, which delights in the organic development of complexity out of simple materials and raw unmeditated vitality. Grassi keeps generating polyrhythms that feed the fire . . . a band that wails and swings in ways that can invoke Mingus. This is music of exceptional power, a band that tears off large chunks of the tradition and makes them their own, that roars with an unmistakable life. This band has remarkable control over its forces, control that's heard as a consistently strong sense of direction. There's a joyous intensity in this music that deserves to be heard." Stuart Broomer Cadence

" . . . an exhilarating mixture of jazz styles spanning the history of jazz. Hints of Dixieland, a Hard Bop ambience, which dominates the themes, humorous elements of entertainment music and spontaneous free form interactions are melded with individual arrangements. A very inspired ensemble" Jazz Live (Austria)

" . . . exceptional. Grassi supplies a very distinct drum style that often resembles the support beneath Ellington's jungle music. The three saxophonists interact with the same single-mindedness found in groups without rhythm sections like the World Saxophone Quartet. On a one-to-five star rating, I'd give it that comet." Dave McElfresh Jazz Now

" Grassi is an especially forceful drummer . . . and his tremendous drive pushes the band hard. The horns respond with exuberant and impassioned playing . . .the musicians all sound very happy to be playing this music . . . Especially recommended to fans of the saxophone." Stu Kremsky International Association of Jazz Record Collector's Journal

". . .this disc features a series of compositions and arrangements of varying complexity, involving twisting unison lines and rapid-fire shifts.. Paradoxically, just when the unison passages seem at their loosest, they prove themselves to be as tight as they can be by the clean execution of a harmonic comment or tangential motion. This is a disc that remains as fascinating on the hundredth hearing as it is on the first." Robert Spencer allaboutjazz.com