Crossing over
Turns out, jazz and bluegrass not all that dissimilar

Under the intimate yet bright lights of the iNDIGO Room last Friday night, Alex Graf effortlessly loosed a quiver of creative, bebop-inspired flatpicking arrows from his new album “Sagebrush Continuum” to an enthusiastic sold-out audience. The rhythms and melodic wizardry of the performance are still floating somewhere over the greater La Plata County area.

Listening to Graf play guitar makes you wonder what Charlie Parker would have done with a Martin D18 instead of a tenor saxophone. Thankfully, Alex is starting to leave a trail of recorded snapshots for the world to follow, contributing a rich, playful and highly virtuosic answer to such a question. For this week’s “Between the Beats,” I sat down with the man himself to learn a little more about the story behind his music.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Brooklyn, but I grew up in the Hudson Valley area.

How did you find your way to Durango?

Through my fiancé, Morgan. Her aunts and uncles have lived here for about 20 years. We met in college. Most people who go to a small liberal arts school near the East Coast end up in New York, Boston or Philadelphia. I just assumed that would be me. And, I’m so lucky to have ended up in Durango.

What’s the thing you’re most likely to be thinking as soon as you pick up your guitar?

Immediately when I pick up my guitar, I’m trying to jump back into that body of water that is my improvisational journey. It’s almost like this one endless solo that I have. I’m super strategic about my time on the instrument. It’s not regimented or anything like that, but as soon as I pick up the guitar, I know exactly what I’m going to practice and the mental space I need to be in. I don’t noodle (laughs).

Tell us about using social media as a tool to spread your music. 

It’s a beast and something to reckon with. I do heavy promotion through Reels and Tiktok. For a while, I took that more seriously than the music. I assigned so much self-worth stuff to that. You see how many likes you get, the comments. I think there are cool opportunities to connect with people, but for the most part, it’s a thing that you have to do if you want a certain recognition.

How did bluegrass find its way into your musical heart?

The first time I heard bluegrass was when I heard Ricky Skaggs at the Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg. I was still really into jazz. I had always perceived these genres as diametrical opposites. But, they’re not.

I actually had stopped playing music right before COVID. I had gotten where I had wanted to in the jazz world, and I wanted to listen to it, but I just didn’t want to play it as much. And then during COVID, I had the opportunity to dive into some bluegrass and it clicked with me. Looking at bluegrass with my jazz lens felt dangerous, like I was going to get in trouble. To listen to super hard-driving traditional bluegrass like Adam Steffi and think about bebop. It was really addicting.

How did you put this all-star cast of characters together?

I played a gig with Evan Suiter for Chevel Shepherd, and I had played with him here and there, just kind of one-offs. In terms of Jacob Jolliff, I gave myself permission to think, “If anyone could play on this record, who would I pick?” So, I emailed him and sent him the tracks, and he was really gracious and said he’d play on the record.

What’s the major drive behind this album for you?

I’ve had this idea about improvising and music in general that I can’t quite put into words. I have all of these albums planned out in my head. And this is my first attempt at that thing. It’s a snapshot of now and where I’m at.

I think a lot of people get turned off by jazz. I think there’s this association with this high-falutin, pretentious, exclusive club that jazz is. But, if you look at the founding of it, jazz is a folk, oral tradition just in the same way that bluegrass or fiddle music is. My love of jazz and how I’m using that word, I don’t want to associate with this strictly academic thing. Sometimes, I think people assume I’m this ultra-theory person. None of this is theoretical for me. It’s about attitude and ethic.

Find Graf’s new album and more at www.alexgrafmusic.com