Grisman does Puccini

Another selection from David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun (his weekly show on Sirius)… I’ve been familiar with mandolist David Grisman through his close relationship with Jerry Garcia. But this one was a surprise (and a welcome one at that) when I heard it last week.

On 2001’s Traversata, Grisman is joined by guitarist Beppe Gambetta and fellow mandolin player Carlo Aonzo. They run through 15 different Italian-American tunes from the early 20th century. Now, I just downloaded the whole thing off of eMusic, and I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, but what I did hear was their take on Puccini’s “Oh, Mio Babbino Caro” (it translates to “Oh, My Dear Papa”). Puccini wrote it for an opera entitled Gianni Schicchi, which debuted at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1918 (see more about the opera in this Wikipedia entry). Really a beautiful piece of music.

David Grisman, Carlo Aonzo, Beppe Gambetta: Oh, Mio Babbino Caro (mp3)

Buy Traversata straight from Grisman’s own independent label, Acoustic Disc, or on eMusic.