PETER WASHBURNE

Peter G. Washburne (aka, "Grack") was born in January of 1957 in Detroit, Michigan and naturally, grew up listening to Motown rock bands. He was particularly drawn to the progressive rock style and began playing bass guitar at the age of 15, assisted by lessons with local professional bassist, Joe Pullin. Peter played electric bass in rock bands in suburban Detroit and upright bass in his high school orchestra. Then in 1977 he enlisted in the United States Navy and received advanced musical instruction at The Armed Forces School of Music.

Over the course of the next eight years, he performed worldwide in various ensembles including combos, big bands, jazz trios, and quartets - demonstrating and refining his skills in a variety of genres from Latin to Greek, ballads to funk, blues to Dixieland, and from disco to the innovative jazz fusion style. In addition, he wrote original compositions and learned to score music for big bands.

While performing on electric bass with the U.S. Navy Band, Peter played a 17-month gig beginning on the island of Guam that went on to tour Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and Italy. After retiring from the Navy, he continued to explore and develop his passion for the bass guitar, practicing and recording in his home studio and producing more than 400 etudes and bass solos, plus cool riffs and band backup tracks.

In his performance and teaching career, Peter has traveled to more than 30 countries, learned to converse in Italian, German, French and Spanish, and became functionally proficient with key phrases in a dozen other languages. Virtually saturated with cultural richness as a spinoff of his musical travels, this heritage is reflected in the rhythms and melodies of his music, as evidenced in his books.

Aside from his musical interests, Peter is married and the father of two daughters. Living in Italy since 1979, he has no bucket list because he is doing exactly what he had always dreamed of do