David Grisman Quintet

This 1977 recording is one of the founding documents of what would come to be called the New Acoustic Music movement. Led by mandolinist/composer David Grisman, the band also featured bassist Bill Amatneek, violinist Darol Anger, second mandolinist Todd Phillips, and the rising star of disruptive bluegrass guitar technique, Tony Rice. The instruments on the cover make this look like a bluegrass album, but it absolutely is not: it’s a jazz album, and a very swinging one, played on bluegrass instruments. And it opened the floodgates to a good decade or so of acoustic-music innovation.