Donna Grantis, well-known as a member of Prince’s band 3RDEYEGIRL, has announced a new project.

“Prior to playing with Prince,” Grantis told The Current this spring, “I had a jazz fusion instrumental trio, and the last group I was jamming in with Prince was sort of like a funk fusion group with MonoNeon on bass. We really stretched out a lot of funk songs and took them to some really interesting places. What I’m doing now is sort of an electric jazz thing, influenced by all of those things.”

Prince & 3rdEyeGirl - Indifference

Prince - lead guitar and vocals Hannah Welton-Ford - drums Ida Nielsen - bass guitar Donna Grantis - guitar

Donna Grantis was working as a session musician when she got a message asking if she wanted to jam with Prince — and the rest is music history. As the 2025 Grammy Awards honour the late musician, the Canadian guitarist tells The National’s Ian Hanomansing how she ended up at Paisley Park and the surreal experiences that followed.

Donna Grantis was born to play guitar.

Like a lot of people, Grantis started when she was a kid, but unlike a lot of people, she was a very quick study, maybe even virtuosic. Tellingly, the first song she ever taught herself to play was Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven — in its entirety.

For years, Grantis was one of the most sought after session players in Toronto, playing with the likes of Shakura S'aida, Amanda Marshall, Kardinall Offishall and more. But all that changed in 2012, when she received a message on behalf of one of her musical heroes.

"I got an email that said, 'Hi, wondering if you'd be interested in coming to Paisley Park to jam with Prince in the band?'" she tells q's Tom Power.

She did some digging online to make sure the person contacting her was legitimate, and after that it wasn't long before she found herself with a one-way ticket to Minneapolis, where Prince's home studio, Paisley Park, is based, armed with her guitar and a shortlist of songs she had learned, including classics like Purple Rain.

The audition, as it turns out, was more like a jam session, with Grantis thrown directly into the mix with future 3rdeyegirl bandmates Hannah Welton and Ida Kristine. When they played Purple Rain, Grantis noticed Prince wasn't on his guitar, but instead played piano. And he was watching her play. When it came time for the solo, Prince simply gave her the signal that this was her moment.

"It's really sink or swim, do or die," she says of working with Prince. "I always felt like, when I was on stage with Prince in the band and he would point to me or he would say, come on, Donna, you know, it's time to just go for it. Give it 100%."

Recensie: Donna Grantis - Diamonds And Dynamite // @DonnaGrantis @eOneMusicCanada

Donna Grantis – Diamonds And Dynamite Format: CD – Digital / Label: eOne Music Canada Releasedatum: 11 april 2019

Tekst: Peter Marinus

Jazz-rock! De één gruwt ervan en krijgt er zware uitslag van en de ander vindt het fantastisch en is zwaar ondersteboven van het technische vernuft die de muzikanten in deze muzieksoort tentoonspreiden.

En jazz-rock is wat je te horen krijgt op het (jazz-rock)…