Bob Grawi
// Inventor of the Gravikord®BOB GRAWI is a composer, musician, performer, and inventor of the Gravikord® from Florida, New York. Bob Grawi’s Gravikord Ensemble’s “Rising Tide” (1991), and “Cherries & Stars” (1996) are both available from Amazon.com and Gravikord.com. Bob Grawi plays a lyrical double-harp called the Gravikord®, creating a new high-energy polyrhythmic harp tradition in America. His fascination with polyrhythmic music and African instruments inspired him to invent the Gravikord, which is named after himself and the kora. The Gravikord has been featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in Bart Hopkin’s “Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones: Experimental Musical Instruments [Book & CD]” (1996) previously available from Ellipsis Arts, featuring a forward written by Tom Waits. Bob Grawi’s production company White Bear Enterprises has also pioneered the Whale Bone Bass™, the Gravi-kora™, Bob’s Endless Seltzer™, and a new game Chess In The Round™.
Website: www.gravikord.com
Photo: Bob Grawi / Gravikord.com
Interview:
THERE’S NOTHING BUT SPIRITUALITY! Many people think that spirituality is just the good part of living, but really everything we do, know, and feel is an expression of the spirit. Even the worm has a spirit! “From the worm that feels spring’s madness, to the angel near God’s Throne”. Joy fills the universe… Beethoven’s “Ode To Joy” – Schiller (1759 – 1805). We create from our deep sense of joy and also from our lack of it. As humans we are capable of making and enjoying music. Music is perhaps the most universal and transcendent form of longing and spiritual expression that exists. We can all find solace in some forms of music that embrace our spirits. If we can, we create our own, and send more music out into the vast world of hungry spirits, and sometimes we have the profound experience of having it come back to us from those who are able to commune with it. This sharing is the essence of human communication and empathy. Without music how much poorer would be our lives!
“Music is perhaps the most universal and transcendent form of longing and spiritual expression that exists.”
– Bob Grawi, inventor of the Gravikord®
