Guitarist/composer Grant Geissman is a much in-demand studio musician who has recorded with such artists as Quincy Jones, David Benoit, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, Chuck Mangione, Paula Abdul, Ringo Starr, John Tesh, Keiko Matsui, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson, Placido Domingo, Luis Miguel, and Julio Iglesias. He has also played on the scores for such TV shows as Monk, Dawson's Creek, Touched by an Angel, Boy Meets World, and Family Affair, as well as on movies like The Cable Guy, My Dog Skip, Tomb Raider II, Private Parts, Star Trek: Resurrection, The Majestic, and Anaconda.
Geissman has also been busy working with eclectic musician/composer Van Dyke Parks on Parks’s solo projects, and on music for the HBO children's program Harold and the Purple Crayon, for which Geissman and Parks were nominated for an Annie Award. He has also assisted Parks on three movie projects, providing additional music for The Ponder Heart (PBS), Call Me Claus (Showtime), and Monday Night Mayhem (Showtime). Geissman also assisted composer Dennis McCarthy on the soon-to-be-released feature film Die, Mommy, Die, produced by Anthony Edwards. Writing with Randy Rogel, Geissman also has three original songs in Nickelodeon's Charlotte's Web II, as well as a song in the forthcoming Disney animated film Piglet's Grandest Easter Ever.
Geissman is also a popular Contemporary Jazz recording artist in his own right, with eleven highly regarded albums as a solo artist. While Geissman's trademark over the course of his eleven recordings—from Good Stuff in 1978 through 1998's In With the Out Crowd—has been applying a subtle string virtuosity to his picture perfect melodies, Geissman has never failed to push stylistic envelopes, from his many fiery Latin excursions on 1995’s Business As Usual, the more organic, classical flavors of 1993's Rustic Technology, to his eclectic, blues and funk-drenched Higher Octave release In With the Out Crowd (which pays homage to the great mid-'60s Ramsey Lewis classic, "The In Crowd").
While most of his previous albums were conceived and completed with a definite timeline at hand, Geissman believes that letting his recordings evolve and breathe over time (as they did on In With the Out Crowd) gives him a certain creative freedom which allows for positive, unexpected things to happen. Those various serendipitous events have kept Geissman very busy. He recently reached a career milestone and personal accomplishment by playing on former Beatle Ringo Starr’s latest release, Ringo Rama. Geissman recently completed the shooting for a high resolution DVD release celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Grant Geissman Quintet (due out this fall), and is currently writing material for his next CD release where he continues his trip back to his mainstream jazz and blues roots.
Anyone who has followed Grant Geissman's history knows that it was his electric guitar which allowed him to make his initial and perhaps most enduring stamp on pop culture, the still-revered improvised solo on Chuck Mangione's 1978 pop crossover hit, Feels So Good. A San Jose native who grew up on a steady diet of Beatles, Eric Clapton, surf guitar music and later jazz/blues greats Kenny Burrell and B.B. King, Geissman was in his senior year as a classical guitar major at Cal State Northridge when a mutual friend recommended him for a gig with Mangione. With all of Geissman's achievements as a composer, recording artist and session player for TV, film and jingles, Geissman is still very gratified that "the solo" from Feels So Good is now considered to be a classic.
His previous five Contemporary Jazz releases have reached the top 10 on the national airplay charts, with two of them, Flying Colors and Time Will Tell, rising to the #1 position on the Gavin, Mac, and Radio & Records Charts. His other solo recordings include Good Stuff, Put Away Childish Toys, Drinkin' from the Money River, Snapshots, All My Tomorrows, Take Another Look, Flying Colors, Rustic Technology, the compilation CD Reruns, Business as Usual and In With the Out Crowd.
Geissman is not shy about putting his nostalgic nature into action. One of the country's largest collectors of MAD Magazine and Tales From the Crypt memorabilia, Geissman has authored two definitive books on both subjects, the first entitled Collectibly Mad, and the latter Tales of Terrror! The EC Companion.
Whatever era his music is visiting at any given time, Grant Geissman is always finding new and innovative rhythmic and stylistic twists around those great melodies he's become famous for. The guitarist Mangione once dubbed "General Grant," is most decidedly on the inside track to continued success.
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