LA Music Academy guitar graduate Lorenzo Grassi has a dream. He sees a stage where musicians with instruments play side by side with a D.J. He hears music that combines acoustic with electronica. He sees and hears improvisation within an accessible "Drum and Bass" musical structure. It's a dream he's had since first learning to play the guitar as a young man in Rome, Italy - a dream that he has followed to Pasadena and the LA Music Academy. However, Lorenzo isn't one satisfied to simply dream. He has given that dream a name — Shapes of Sound. Call it a musical "project" or call it a band, in any case, it is Grassi's vision; his baby that he has nursed to the point that Shapes of Sound has a standing performance date at the Lava Lounge in Hollywood and is close to completing work on the "project's" first CD. The current lineup, comprised of bassist Bjorn Fleuren, drummer Bernie G., D.J. Oscure, and Grassi on guitar is in the final arduous mixing process after recording seven songs, including six Grassi penned originals and a John Scofield cover.

Explaining how Shapes of Sound began, Grassi says, "I used to do this stuff back in Italy of putting electronic music together with instrumental. I bumped into this guy J.P. Sancho here, who played electronic music and was a drummer and was even a good producer — this was a year-and-a-half, two years ago. We were playing for this other musician and met on the bandstand, and that's how it happened. I had to hook up with a person that knew how to use electronics well. I had a jazz trio then, and I put my jazz trio with the electronic guy, and we just started playing. We started playing at the Lava Lounge. We had a gig, so it was the perfect condition to start a project. I had gone to the Lava Lounge to see a friend of mine that was playing and ended up talking to the manager and told him that I had in mind this project…that I wanted to put together something electronic because I thought it was really hip, and I talked him into giving me the gig without even having a demo [laughs]. It was pretty good."

Regarding the genesis of combining jazz with electronica, Grassi continues. "I wanted to keep the improvised concept in the music, and jazz is based on that. It's based on improvising within a shape, a form, you know? But that becomes abstract, and people can hardly relate to it. I wanted to do something groovy - that was unexpected - because having an instrumental combo going on with a programmer that throws in all beats — with a drummer — it was something. Plus, I was really attracted by this specific style called 'Drum and Bass.' I always liked that, and I did it in Rome with a Pop band. We used to play some tunes in the 'Drum and Bass' fashion. So, everything started because of these random ideas that I kind of glued together. And this is a band that [obviously] changes a lot according to who's playing in it. I'm just the coordinator, ultimately. I coordinate the musicians. If someone ditches us or quits, I find replacements. But then again, it's not tyrannical, despotic control. Music happens because of the different players, according to who's playing at the time." Grassi sees Shapes of Sound as a necessary conduit for delivering this particular style of music to the audience. "It's the gimmick, the clich?, the conventional flavor that people need. For instance, in jazz, usually bands are not bands. They are solo musicians, so the projects have the solo musicians' names. I didn't want it to be the Lorenzo Grassi Trio, Quartet, or whatever. Because this is kind of like a commercial shot for me, in a way. I wanted to keep the outside features of what could be a commercial combo music company with a name, a band's name." Sancho and other band mates have come and gone and the current lineup has barely been together for little more than a month — since D.J. Oscure joined Shapes of Sound in April. However, Grassi says that addition has had an electrifying effect on the group. "He marked a radical change because before we didn't have a D.J. We had a programmer, so the music had a lot more electronic influence. The programmer wouldn't just sample beats... he would sample a lot of different sounds — keyboards, synths — and we would play some of his songs, so the repertoire was totally different, the sound was different. Now, I'm excited because it is more acoustic and he [D.J. Oscure] programs a bit too, but it changed a lot."

Whether it be on stage or the process of getting to the stage, Grassi's musical pursuits have lent themselves to a sense of adventure. And the story of how he found his way to the LA Music Academy is no exception. "One day I was in Italy, and I was having a hard time there because things weren't going as expected. It was hard for me to find dedicated musicians that would stick to the cause, you know? And I had a feeling that I wanted to change environments a bit, so I came here for a trip — by myself — for three weeks. I was in a motel in Hollywood one night and randomly I went to the Catalina Bar and Grill [a noted jazz club in Hollywood]. And also, randomly, I bumped into Frank Gambale. He was playing with Vital Information. I mean, I knew he was playing there because I had studied a few songs by Frank Gambale in Italy, so I knew about him and everything, but I had never seen him play. And I was blown away. I was almost in a state of... a high, a euphoria. It was a first time, unique experience. It was pretty mind blowing - the whole thing, the whole band, the tightness, the self denial in playing, the extreme musicianship — it was an incredible experience. And I was alone, so I must have been more sensitive to certain things, I don't know. But after that gig, I went up to Frank and said, 'Frank, you gotta teach me some stuff, man. There's no way I'm leaving here unless you give me a couple of lessons.' And Frank, he's got Italian origins. So, as soon as he found out I was Italian, he started talking in Italian. But he said, 'I'm about to go on tour. I'm leaving in a few days, so I don't have time right now. It's impossible, forget it. But if you want, there's a school I teach at. It's the LA Music Academy in Pasadena.' He wrote down the phone number for me." Grassi was now on a mission. "I went back to the hotel, and the first thing I did the morning after was call the school. I rented this car. I remember I didn't even have a credit card. I had to give them like $200 to get it. So, I rented this car, and I had never driven an automatic car, and with the freeways, I didn't know what the hell was going on. I jumped into this huge Ford pickup truck, and I drove to Pasadena."

Miraculously, Grassi made it to the school in one piece. And what he found was an environment where he felt he could thrive. Grassi states: "I just walked in, and I felt something, you know? I felt this essential aspect of the school. The classrooms had…like a blackboard, a few amps, and a drum kit. It was down to earth. I had a chance to see some of the teachers. I saw Frank Gambale play. I saw Jeff Richman play with Vinnie Colaiuta. So, I saw that their teachers were actually playing musicians that were not just teachers that were just good in teaching theoretical kind of things. They were working musicians. Teaching is one thing and playing music onstage is quite another. They are connected because you're using the same tools, but there's a totally different approach. A lot of people that are good teachers aren't necessarily good playing musicians. And a lot of good musicians aren't necessarily good teachers." For Grassi, the LA Music Academy didn't simply provide instruction on how to play guitar. The school's influence went well beyond perfecting technique. "The school was like a ramp, helping me to take off. Not just musically. It trained me to play 24/7. It made me do that jump from the guitar just being an instrument around me to being really part of my self. You have to co-exist with this piece of wood so much and think about music for such long, extensive periods of time. It started becoming something really subconscious. When you really master something — not that I'm a master — the whole object is that you don't have to think about it, it just happens."

And what's happening is Grassi and Shapes of Sound are garnering more and more attention with each performance. "Every time we play, we get an absolutely great reaction because no one does this kind of music here, and people really like it. There's a band onstage and they're really good musicians. The D.J. is more of an instrumental player than someone who just spins records. He's trying to use the turntable in a different way." Speaking of the potential difficulties corralling his talented band mates for their next show at the Lava Lounge, Grassi is undaunted by the task of balancing the musical vs. the business responsibilities of leading a band, "You don't have to try too hard, because if it's meant to be, I think it has a natural flow. Sometimes you do have to do an emergency rescue, but ultimately, you have to have some kind of faith that you're doing something you believe in, you know?" And considering that Grassi's belief has already crossed two continents and joined disparate musical styles, he wouldn't be someone to bet against.