Pete Malinverni Quartet Featuring Pasquale Grasso

Fri, Feb 20, 2026

Pete Malinverni Quartet Featuring Pasquale Grasso

with Pete Malinverni

It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can only dream of, and then some. In his interview for Vintage Guitar magazine’s February 2016 cover story, Pat Metheny was asked to name some younger musicians who’d impressed him. “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so difficult.

“Mostly what I hear now are guitar players who sound a little bit like me mixed with a little bit of [John Scofield] and a little bit of [Bill Frisell],” he continued. “What’s interesting about Pasquale is that he doesn’t sound anything like that at all. In a way, it is a little bit of a throwback, because his model—which is an incredible model to have—is Bud Powell. He has somehow captured the essence of that language from piano onto guitar in a way that almost nobody has ever addressed. He’s the most significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”

Pete Malinverni

Pianist, composer, educator Pete Malinverni has been a fixture on the New York City Jazz scene since moving there in the early 1980s from his hometown of Niagara Falls, NY, where he'd begun Classical Piano studies at the tender age of six.

Since moving to NYC, Pete has recorded sixteen times as a leader, including in solo piano, piano/violin duet, trio, quartet, quintet, big band and choral contexts. All of his recordings have been received by critics and the public alike and have seen heavy airplay on all platforms, from the radio to the internet.

Throughout his time in NYC, Pete has established performing, recording and inspirational contact with a host of masters on the scene there, including Joe Lovano, Vernel Fournier, Charles Davis, Mel Lewis, Dennis Irwin, Karrin Allyson, Steve Wilson and many, many others. These collaborations have happened in studios and on stages like the Carnegie Recital Hall, the Caramoor Festival, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Rome Music and Image Festival, the Santiago (Chile) Jazz Festival and others, as well as in New York's great clubs, such as the Village Vanguard, Birdland, the Blue Note, the Village Gate, Bradley's, Smalls and Mezzrow.

These experiences, along with his work in inspirational settings such as the Devoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn (Minister of Music for eighteen years), the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY (Pianist and Conductor) and the Pound Ridge Community Church (Director of Music), have convinced him that music must be treated as a sacred gift, to be passed on freely to fellow musicians and listeners, with passionate control.

Pete is proud of his work in education, too. After tenures at William Paterson University and New York University, he now serves as Chair of Jazz Studies at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, State University of New York, just a few miles north of the City.

Pete Malinverni - piano
Pasquale Grasso - guitar

Show times 7:30 & 9:30

General Admission ~ a la carte menu:  $25
Dinner & Show package ~ includes 3-course dinner:  $95
VIP Dinner & Show package ~ includes 3-course dinner and stage-front seating:  $115
(Beverages not included)

All-In Price at check out inclusive of taxes & fees. Server gratuity ($14) added to Dinner & Show fees.

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It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can only dream of, and then some. In his interview for Vintage Guitar magazine’s February 2016 cover story, Pat Metheny was asked to name some younger musicians who’d impressed him. “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so difficult.

“Mostly what I hear now are guitar players who sound a little bit like me mixed with a little bit of [John Scofield] and a little bit of [Bill Frisell],” he continued. “What’s interesting about Pasquale is that he doesn’t sound anything like that at all. In a way, it is a little bit of a throwback, because his model—which is an incredible model to have—is Bud Powell. He has somehow captured the essence of that language from piano onto guitar in a way that almost nobody has ever addressed. He’s the most significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”

Pete Malinverni