Guitar Days 2025 – Guitar Days

Pasquale Grasso

Pasquale Grasso is an Italian-born jazz guitarist based in New York City. He is known for a pianistic approach to jazz guitar influenced by Bud Powell’s style, and for using classical position and technique enabled by classical training.

n 2012 he moved to New York City. He became part of the Ari Roland Quartet and the Chris Byars Quartet, with both of which he toured and recorded. Later that year, Pasquale was named a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, and toured on behalf of the embassy in Europe, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and other places.

In 2015 he released his debut album, Reflections of Me. Earlier the same year he and harmonica player Yvonnick Prené released the album Merci Toots which included tunes by Toots Thielemans, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.

Also in 2015 he won the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition. One of the judges, Bill Milkowski, wrote later that Pasquale had “stunned the judges…with his sheer speed and fluency, precise articulation and sophisticated eloquence on the instrument, combining aspects of Joe Pass and Bud Powell into one formidable, unforgettable six-string voice.”

In 2016 Pat Metheny told Vintage Guitar magazine that Grasso was “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life.”

In 2017, Pasquale signed with Sony Masterworks and, working with producer Matt Pierson, recorded a series of solo recordings, released as digital EPs, beginning in 2019 and starting with Solo Standards Vol. 1 followed by Solo Ballads Vol.1, Solo Monk, Solo Bud Powell, Solo Holiday, and Solo Bird. An album comprising tracks from these recordings was released as Solo Masterpieces in 2020.

In November 2020 he performed a run of shows with Laura Benanti in October 2021 at Feinstein’s/54 Below and was featured on Benanti’s 2020 self-titled album and on her “Go Slow” single and video. He appeared with Benanti again in 2021, at Feinstein’s Diamond Series concert.

On 17 September 2021 Sony Masterworks released his album of Duke Ellington covers, Pasquale Plays Duke, with bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla and guest vocalists Samara Joy and Sheila Jordan. The same year he appeared leading the trio backing Samara Joy on her album Samara Joy. On 15 February 2022 he performed on the Today Show with Samara Joy, and appeared on her 2022 album Linger Awhile.

He has had residencies at New York City clubs including Django in TriBeCa, Tartina in Harlem and Mezzrow in the West Village.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasquale_Grasso

Claus Spechtl

Claus Spechtl is the younger brother of the actor Rainer Spechtl. He studied jazz guitar at the then Conservatory of the City of Vienna (now MUK) and, since no career as a musician was originally planned, he also studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. After becoming a mag.rer.nat. the first engagements followed, among others in the Theater an der Wien and in the ORF Big Band as well as private musical training, with the help of Karl Ratzer in Vienna and John Abercrombie in New York.
Subsequently freelance live and studio musician for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Big Band/Orchestra Richard Oesterreicher, André Heller (“Flic Flac”), Michael Heltau, Peter Alexander, the Wolfgang Lindner Band and Dagmar Koller. He played in various jazz bands, including: happy floating with Karl Ratzer and jazz-in with Toots Thielemans. He also worked with Ed Neumeister, Robert Politzer, Zipflo Weinrich and ex-Miles Davis bassist Angus “Bangus” Thomas.
Claus Spechtl’s own trio with Uwe Urbanowski and Walther Großrubatscher performed with Thomas Gansch, Wolfgang Puschnig, Roman Schwaller and Andy Middleton. He worked with his brother Rainer in the bands Blaulichtviertel and the duo Wiener Blues. There were concerts in the large halls of the Vienna Music Association and the Konzerthaus, the large broadcasting hall of the ORF and in the Porgy & Bess, but also on the Donauinsel, the Vienna Blues Spring in Reigen and Fernwärme, the Volksstimmefest and the Ottakringer Kirtag. Tours led, among other things, to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Moscow.
From 1986 to 2022, Claus Spechtl led the jazz guitar class at the Music and Art Private University of the City of Vienna, and held improvisation workshops and master classes at the Lucerne University of Music, at the 20th IASJ Meeting in the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, at the Conservatorio Stanislao Giacomatonio Cosenza, at Zeillern Castle and at the Scheibbs Jazz Seminar.

Christoph Helm

Christoph Helm was born in 1973 and grew up in Lower Austria. He began playing the guitar at the age of 11, first self-taught – inspired by changing local role models – and later as a student at the Vienna Conservatory (now MUK) with Claus Spechtl, where he had his first serious encounter with jazz and graduated with honors in 1996. From his first year of study, he played in bands of a wide variety of styles – always striving to reflect the peculiarities of the respective musical idiom in the best possible way while still maintaining his very personal voice. And so his portfolio as a guitarist shows a remarkable and comprehensive mastery of numerous genres from blues, rock, metal, pop, funk, soul & jazz to world music. In 2000 he founded the band The Bad Powells, which would soon develop into one of the most successful live acts in Austria through original and highly musical interpretations of songs from the disco era. For seven years and four albums he worked intensively with the songwriter and cabaret artist Jimmy Schlager and was co-founder of the Solomons, a band that specialized in the Motown sound of the 60s (with an emphasis on harmony singing and creative arrangements). He played in a band with the Moroccan Raï singer Kadero Ray, accordion wizard Otto Lechner & Zawinul bassist Linley Marthe and recorded with the Austrian producer legend Christian Kolonovits. In addition to contributing to more than 40 albums, he can also be heard on numerous soundtracks, especially the ORF hit series “Vorstadtweiber”, to which he also contributed as a composer. He was able to live out his love of jazz and improvised music on CDs such as “Dance of Infinity” (Walter Sitz Trio) or, most recently, the trio’s much-acclaimed debut album Elmo Nero (with Gina Schwarz & Max Plattner). “Christoph is a wonderful guitarist and composer” (Gilad Hekselman) “I was very impressed with his playing. He has a real command of the jazz vocabulary on guitar, and improvises and accompanies with finesse and authority” (John Stowell)

Mickylee

A native of ex-Yugoslavia, Miroslav Mirosavljev aka Mickylee has found his home in Vienna Austria, where he has been active in the music scene for many years.

After getting his Master of Arts Degree in Jazz Guitar and Jazz Composition at the world-known University for Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, where he studied with Guido Jeszenszky, Karl Ratzer, and Karlheinz Czadek, Mickylee concentrated mostly on playing and teaching. However, his portfolio also includes composing music for theater and motion pictures. During his long collaboration with Virtual Sheet Music, he arranged many works for solo guitar as well as other ensembles, such as string quartets, brass quartets, etc.

In 2001, Mickylee won the 1st prize at the International Big Band Composition Contest in Barga, Italy. He regularly performs in Austria and all across Europe but has also played concerts in North America, Africa, and Asia. On his YouTube channel, Mickylee has around 400 videos, mostly due to his 2013 project called “Daily Solo”, where he posted a video a day for a whole year.

His solo album “deComposing Cats” ensured him a place among the top Jazz/Fusion guitar players in this part of the world. He is also a member of a Viennese Fusion/Funk band Inspirational Corner, with which he recorded an album called “Chameleon Lab Explosion”. “In the Wheel” is the name of the album he recorded with acoustic guitar player Peter Mayer. In his collaboration with renowned guitar players John Stowell and Ulf Bandgren, Mickylee recorded an album called “Portuguese Blue”, published under the “Quinton Records” label. “Revival” is his most recent project and self-titled album with his long-time friend and musical colleague, one of the most acclaimed singers, Chanda Rule.

Besides teaching privately and in the music school in Brunn am Gebirge, Mickylee works as a University Professor at the JAM MUSIC LAB Private University Vienna, where he also holds the position of Dean of Studies.