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Jerry Granelli

The past decades have been good to Jerry Granelli.

Jazz Times magazine calls Granelli “one of those uncategorizable veteran percussionists who's done it all.” A Canadian citizen since 1999, Granelli burns with an intensity fuelled by a passion for “the pursuit of the spirit of spontaneity which drives the player.” A veteran of the West Coast jazz scene, Granelli's recent flourish of recordings has documented remarkable collaborations between the generations.

Jerry Granelli's story is one that follows the evolution of the West Coast jazz scene. Born in 1940 in San Francisco, the boy recognized his passion in 1948 when he spent a day with Gene Krupa. Hanging out during the 50s in San Francisco nightclubs like the Blackhawk and Jimbo’s Bop City, soaking in the sounds of Ellington, Miles, Max Roach and Monk, his passion grew, eventually leading him to Dave Brubeck drummer Joe Morello. After two years as Morello's star pupil, Granelli became a highly sought-after session player, eventually playing, recording and touring with the Vince Guaraldi Band. He provides the unmistakable steady swing beats for the classic Charlie Brown “Peanuts” theme song.

In the volatile West Coast scene of the 60s, Granelli moved on to the Denny Zeitlin Trio, a group that included bassist Charlie Haden. A hugely successful recording and touring band, they tied with Miles Davis for Group of the Year in Downbeat magazine's Critics and Readers Poll in 1965. Throughout the 60s he performed with many major players on the scene, including Jimmy Witherspoon, Mose Allison, Lou Rawls, John Handy, Sonny Stitt, Sly Stone, Ornette Coleman and Dewey Redman. He was right there too as the West Coast focus shifted from cool jazz styles to the beginnings of psychedelia. His free-form improvisational trio held down the opening slot for comedian Lenny Bruce for three months in 1963, and shared bills at The Matrix and The Fillmore with Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead, also accompanying the Dead on their first European tour in 1971.

Granelli became a Buddhist in 1970, and from the mid-70s through the 90s he focused on teaching, bringing his insider knowledge to hundreds of students at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, then Seattle's Cornish Institute, the Conservatory in Halifax, and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. He now has his own summer school in Halifax, the Creative Music Workshop.

During the 80s he toured and recorded in a trio with Ralph Towner and Gary Peacock, and began recording his own projects. These include 1993’s A Song I Thought I Heard Buddy Sing, featuring Bill Frisell and Robben Ford and nominated for a Grammy; Another Place; and UFB’s News from the Street and Broken Circle (all produced by Lee Townsend and released on Intuition). Then came his New York septet Badlands (Enter, a Dragon and Crowd Theory, on Songlines); his collaboration with DJ Stinkin Rich (Buck 65), Music has its Way with Me, and duos with keyboardist Jamie Saft and bass clarinetist Jeff Reilly; V16; and most recently his spoken-word collaboration with Rinde Eckert and a new septet, Sandhills Reunion (2004, Songlines).

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Album Review

Jay Clayton, Jerry Granelli: Alone Together

Read "Alone Together" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


L'età avanzata non aveva spento in Jay Clayton e Jerry Granelli (purtroppo deceduto di recente) la voglia di riprendere la lunga collaborazione in performance liberamente improvvisate. Il sodalizio tra la cantante e il batterista risale alla fine degli anni settanta, quando Collin Walcott suggerì a Granelli d'invitare la Clayton al workshop musicale che tenevano al Naropa Institute, il famoso centro buddhista di Boulder, Colorado. Apparentemente sembrava una collaborazione incompatibile. Il drummer di San Francisco era maturato nel ...

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Album Review

Jerry Granelli: The Jerry Granelli Trio Plays The Music Of Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison

Read "The Jerry Granelli Trio Plays The Music Of Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Drummer Jerry Granelli, bassist Brad Jones and pianist Jamie Saft team in a trio that Plays Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison to honor two of the most influentially lyrical and bluesy composer-musicians in jazz history. Granelli possesses deep personal insight into both principals. He landed in the drum chair in Vince Guaraldi's trio just as the title track to the pianist's 1962 landmark Cast Your Fate to the Wind was breaking out in the US singles charts and ...

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Album Review

Jerry Granelli: The Jerry Granelli Trio Plays The Music Of Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison

Read "The Jerry Granelli Trio Plays The Music Of Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Eminent drummer Jerry Granelli leads this covers session where the musicians spin diverse interpretations of largely immortal compositions from yesteryear via telepathic output and a modus operandi framed on an outpouring of fellowship and merriment. As their personalized takes on the late, influential pianists/composers Mose Allison and Vince Guaraldi are executed with assurance and acutely placed detours amid a democratic group-based manifesto. Hence, these positive attributes come as no surprise since the drummer performed extensively with both artists.

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Album Review

Jerry Granelli Trio: Plays Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison

Read "Plays Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Prossimo a celebrare gli ottant'anni (li compirà il 30 dicembre prossimo), il batterista Jerry Granelli riprende in mano il materiale di due autori che hanno avuto grande importanza per la sua formazione: il pianista Vince Guaraldi, con il quale collaborò per tre intensi anni all'inizio della sua carriera, e il pianista-cantante Mose Allison, nel cui trio entrò subito dopo, per poi tornare a lavoravi a intervalli numerose volte nel corso dei successivi quarant'anni. E lo fa assieme a due artisti ...

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Interview

Jerry Granelli: Updating Music of Past Heroes

Read "Jerry Granelli: Updating Music of Past Heroes" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


"I've earned the privilege of not playing anything I don't want to play," says drummer Jerry Granelli, whose past is replete with the names of many greats in jazz for whom he supplied rhythmic support—sometimes force—over several decades. “That used to be a fear," he adds, “You figured if you turned something down, the phone would never ring again. But I don't have to worry about that now. I might do something with a young musician. I won't ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Jerry Granelli, Lisa Ullén, Rudresh Mahanthappa & Yells At Eels

Read "Jerry Granelli, Lisa Ullén, Rudresh Mahanthappa & Yells At Eels" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


Drummer extraordinaire Jerry Granelli says he doesn't look back too much, he'd prefer to move forward with his music, but with Jamie Saft and Brad Jones in tow, he decided the time was right to rediscover some of the tunes he played backing Vince Guaraldi and Mose Allison years back. A sample of his new album is a highlight of this episode. Other new albums being sampled come from Swedish pianist Lisa Ullen, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Yells at Eels with Pinkish ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Jorja Smith, Gary Bartz & Maisha, Jerry Granelli and More New Releases

Read "Jorja Smith, Gary Bartz & Maisha, Jerry Granelli and More New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


The second part of this week's new and upcoming release special brings new gems by Angel Bat Dawid, Caleb Dolister, old gems in new bottles courtesy of Gary Bartz & Maisha and of Jorja Smith diving into the Blue Note catalogue for a neo-classic St. Germain, some family love by the Granellis and the electro-acoustic experimentations of Enrico Rava, Matthew Herbert and Giovanni Guidi Happy listening! Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng ...

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Recording

Drummer Jerry Granelli Reunites with Guitar Greats Bill Frisell & Robben Ford After 25 Years for Blues-Soaked Repertoire on "Dance Hall"

Drummer Jerry Granelli Reunites with Guitar Greats Bill Frisell & Robben Ford After 25 Years for Blues-Soaked Repertoire on "Dance Hall"

Source: DL Media

Back in 1992, veteran drummer-composer Jerry Granelli went to studios in Seattle and San Francisco with an all-star cast, including trombonist Julian Priester, alto sax great Kenny Garrett, bassist Anthony Cox and guitarists Bill Frisell and Robben Ford, to record a set of blues-based tunes that resonated with his youth. The resulting album, A Song I Thought I Heard Buddy Sing, inspired by Michael Ondaatje's haunting novel “Coming Through Slaughter" about the life of the legendary New Orleans cornetist Buddy ...

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Performance / Tour

Jerry Granelli Holds A One-Week Residency At John Zorn's The Stone On January 3-8, 2017

Jerry Granelli Holds A One-Week Residency At John Zorn's  The Stone On January 3-8, 2017

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

Born in 1940, and now in his late 70s , Drummer / Composer / Professor / Sound Painter Jerry Granelli has enjoyed an incomparable career in music from the inside out... way out! The winner of the last NEA Grant awarded ascended from playing with the great pianist Vince Guaraldi at the height of his popularity while simultaneously exploring Free Jazz on San Francisco's thriving after hours sets in the early `60s to establishing academic arts curriculums to indoctrinate and ...

35

Recording

Jerry Granelli Trio’s Debut CD, "Let Go," Is The Latest Gem In Percussion Master’s Multi-faceted Career

Jerry Granelli Trio’s Debut CD, "Let Go," Is The Latest Gem In Percussion Master’s Multi-faceted Career

Source: Cary Goldberg

“Let go of what you want it to be. let go of how you think it too should be. even let go of your vision.and so we began by bringing in compositions and tearing them apart to find out what worked. This recording is a crystallization of that process.” In the middle of 2011, after releasing the first ever solo recording of his extensive career (2010’s 1313 on Divorce Records), critically acclaimed drummer Jerry Granelli opted to explore the trio ...

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Recording

Jerry Granelli Trio - Let Go (2011)

Jerry Granelli Trio - Let Go (2011)

Source: Something Else!

verytime I've examined a Jerry Granelli record, like Song I Thought I Heard Buddy Sing or News From The Street, I've marveled at how a guy who drummed for all those Charlie Brown children's TV specials with Vince Guaraldi ended up being such a creative risktaker as a leader. At the same time, I think it's a crime he doesn't get enough due for his daring and just damned good drumming. Jerry's always trying something new and this time he's ...

158

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Jerry Granelli

Jazz Musician of the Day: Jerry Granelli

Source: Michael Ricci


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Interview

Drummer Jerry Granelli Interviewed at AAJ

Drummer Jerry Granelli Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

It's easy to mention drummer Jerry Granelli's accomplishments, but hard to really make clear his importance, or the way he's continuously, over forty years, been at the forefront of most of the innovations and new movements in jazz music.

From working with Vince Guaraldi and Denny Zeitlin in the San Francisco area in the 1960s to his own broad-reaching discography with groups including UFB and V16 (not to mention his outstanding Sandhills Reunion Project), Granelli has followed his muse from ...

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Performance / Tour

Jay Clayton/Jane Ira Bloom/Jerry Granelli Bowery Poetry Club Saturday, March 18, 2PM

Jay Clayton/Jane Ira Bloom/Jerry Granelli  Bowery Poetry Club Saturday,  March 18,  2PM

Source: All About Jazz

Saturday March 18, 2PM “OUTSKIRTS" Jay Clayton - voice/electronics Jane Ira Bloom - sax/electronics Jerry Granelli - drums/electronics Performing LINES AND SPACES/ A Dream Suite by Jay Clayton created with support from Chamber Music America's New Works :Creation and Presentation Program, funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (1st & Bleeker) 212-614-0505 Modern vocalist Jay Clayton, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and ...

"The Sonic Temple is one of those rare collective improvisations that can at times sound fully composed... Honestly, prepare to be amazed, because it's that good." —Mark Saleski

"V16 is simply responding to the myriad of influences that make one night different from the next for a group that's clearly out on a limb with every performance. There may be no safety nets for V16, but The Sonic Temple simply proves that Jerry Granelli and his younger cohorts don’t need one." —John Kelman, All About Jazz

"Four Stars" —Downbeat

"Granelli remains one of the best working drummers in any genre of music, but the band’s just as fine—this is an electric-guitar quartet unlike any other." —Paul Olson, All About Jazz

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Live 1978

Liberation Hall
2022

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A Charlie Brown...

Craft Recordings
2021

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Plays Vince Guaraldi...

RareNoiseRecords
2020

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Alone Together

Sunnyside Records
2020

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Dance Hall

Justin Time Records
2017

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What I Hear Now

Addo Records
2015

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