Jazz Articles about Jerry Granelli

Jerry Granelli: The V16 Project

by AAJ Staff
September 25, 2003

Judging by its grille and supercharged front end, Jerry Granelli's new thing is built to cruise. The V16 Project, a power quartet nominally under the drummer's leadership, has the potential to go any which direction. That it does, in its own peculiar way, restlessly shifting among styles and mixing them up to the point where you can't tell them apart (and to tell the truth, it doesn't matter anyway). Jazz purists, or purists of any kind, you better skip this ...

Jerry Granelli / Jeff Reilly: Iron Sky

by Mark Corroto
November 1, 2002

Drummer Jerry Granelli and his ever shifting attention and projects finds him recording in blacksmith John Little's metal shop on Iron Sky. From his early days with Mose Allison and Charlie Brown pianist Vince Guaraldi, Granelli has developed from a session bop drummer into a remarkable voice of percussion.

As a leader he has pursued the history of jazz, A Song I Thought I Heard Buddy Sing, street and folk jazz with his band UFB, and he has ...

Jerry Granelli and Jeff Reilly: Iron Sky

by Dan McClenaghan
October 25, 2002

Iron Sky opens with a pair of pearls of rolling metallic thunder, a sound that is resonant, funereal, foreboding, the deep reverberations of a giant steel bass drum created especially for this sonic project.Jerry Granelli is the percussionist; Jeff Reilly plays the bass clarinet. The sound sculptures herein were created and recorded in John Little's blacksmith shop. Gongs, cymbals, an all metal string banjo: all of the instruments created--we'll guess by John Little the blacksmith himself--specifically for Love ...

Jerry Granelli & Badlands: Crowd Theory

by Mark Corroto
July 1, 2000

Drummer Jerry Granelli has always been a conceptual jazz musician. After early associations with Denny Zeitlin, Vince Guaraldi, and Ralph Towner his solo projects took on novel qualities, both for their storytelling and unique aspects. The 1992 recording A Song I Thought I Heard Buddy Sing utilized Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter, a fictionalized biography of Buddy Bolden, the very real New Orleans jazz trumpeter was the basis for a tour of the first 100 years of jazz. Subsequent projects ...

Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete: Vince & Bola

by Derek Taylor
June 1, 2000

The ascendancy of the Bossa Nova ‘craze’ in the late 1950s and '60s was birthed by a succession of highly successful musical partnerships--Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank, Sergio Mendes and Herbie Mann, Stan Getz and just about every major Brazilian musician of the day including Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto--all were major proponents of the style. One partnership that is often bypassed in discussions of the music is that shared between Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete and California-based cool jazz ...

Jerry Granelli - UFB: Broken Circle

by Glenn Astarita
May 1, 2000

While not a “jazz" recording in the true sense, the group known as UFB--led by well-known drummer/composer/bandleader Jerry Granelli--represents themes and notions spurred upon by his personal interest in Native American culture on Broken Circle. Here, Granelli leads a blues/rock driven outing that also boasts funk grooves on Prince's “Sign 'o' the Times," complete with thumping, forward moving bass lines by Andreas Walter and the harmonious dual guitar attack of Christian Kogel and Kai Bruckner. On “Red and Blue Days," ...

Vince Guaraldi Trio: Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits

by Douglas Payne
October 1, 1998

This nice little holiday gift is easily confused with the popular soundtrack to the 1964 TV special,A Charlie Brown Christmas. But don't be fooled. Nine of the 14 tracks included here are culled from the 15 Peanuts holiday specials Vince Guaraldi scored before his untimely death at age 47 in 1976--and have never been released on disc before.Some will even startle Vince Guaraldi fans. The lovely, melodic waltzes you can hum along to are all here. But it's ...