September 2012 - The New York City Jazz Record

Photo by Geoffrey Creighton
INTERVIEW
Percussionist Jerry Granelli, now 72, has been involved in
so many different projects over the years that he would seem
to be several drummers. A San Franciscan, Granelli was the
drummer on Vince Guaraldi’s popular series of Peanuts LPs
and TV music specials. He has played on hit records and
with psychedelic rock bands while his jazz gigs encompass
work with Denny Zeitlin, Jane Ira Bloom and Mose Allison.
Granelli, who moved to Canada in the late ‘80s, has taught
music in three countries and recorded a spate of CDs under
his own name.
The New York City Jazz Record: Although you were
already working steadily at the time, you’ve said that
it wasn’t until you studied with Joe Morello that you
finally formed your idea of how to play the drums.
Jerry Granelli: The Morello relationship was very
important in my life. I had been, like you say, basically
working professionally since I was 15. I guess I was
about 17 when I met Joe. Before that I felt there was so
much more to playing the instrument than I knew, but
no one around San Francisco at that time could help
with the technical aspects. Then I heard Morello and
was lucky enough to meet him and he became a great
mentor. His greatest gift was that he really opened up
another whole level of technical skill to me. That
continues to be of value, even at this age. I think the
most important part of his teaching was that he never
tried to get me to play like him. He just kept saying,
‘find your voice’ and all the technical teaching was just
to serve the music. He was first a great mentor and
later a dear friend.
TNYCJR: When you joined pianist Vince Guaraldi’s
trio he already had recorded the Charlie Brown TV
show albums around that time. Did you figure people
would still remember those sessions, especially the
Christmas album, nearly 50 years later?
JG: Ah, the great Peanuts question. Well, when we did
it we had no idea what a cultural phenomenon it was
going to turn into. No one can know those kinds of
things. It was just the right time, right project, right
people and right music. I’m just happy that it has
touched so many people. People don’t know, but the
recordings with Vince were the tip of the iceberg. Vince
came to play, really play, every night and he demanded
that you do the same. It was great training.
TNYCJR: You were also playing with saxophonists
Dewey Redman and Pharoah Sanders at the same time
and in pianist Denny Zeitlin’s trio with Charlie Haden.
What distinguished those gigs from more mainstream
ones with Guaraldi or Mose Allison, for instance?
JG: Like I said, that was a great time, having the ‘real
gig’ [with Guaraldi]. But [bassist] Fred Marshall was in
Vince’s trio, so after the gig we would go to [famous
San Francisco after-hours club Jimbo’s] Bop City and
Jerry
Granelli
by Ken Waxman
6 September 2012 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
play. Yes, Dewey was there and Pharoah and
others, but more importantly was a piano player,
Joseph Nunez. Flip as he was called, was one of those
legends in the music, who only the players know
about. The really out playing that I did was with him
and Fred. All that playing was for no money, but was
so exciting for all of us. The music was raw, new and in
those days it really got people upset, because they
thought we were trying to destroy bebop. But we
figured we were just going where it led. All of this
playing, the non-paying and the paying gigs, enabled
me to find a voice. It was confirmation of what I had
heard in terms of stating the time, new ways to generate
time and form and to enter the world of spontaneous
composition.
Later, when I played with Denny and Charlie, we
were really interested in approaching the trio as a
three-way relationship, which was a different approach
at the time. The work with Mose has always been one
of my favorite things. Mose is really pretty out and,
again, he comes to play all the time. During this whole
period I played with a lot of different people, but as
part of the ensemble. Still, I was always pushing
forward towards getting into creating a larger drum
set or playing electronics. I think I began to more and
more see myself as a sound artist rather than a
drummer, per se.
TNYCJR: Jazz people may not know that you’ve
actually been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame as a pioneer of the psychedelic scene. What was
the Light Sound Dimension collective?
JG: I think the time period we’re looking at was late
‘60s. I’d started working with the big drum set and
having more sounds and amplifying the instrument.
Then Frank Werber, who owned the Trident, where I
had worked with Vince and Denny, somehow got the
idea of putting us together with the great light painters
Bill Ham and Bob Fine. They had been innovating with
light painting at the Avalon and Fillmore [Ballrooms],
but also loved improvisation. So we started to play
together and explore the form of a light and sound
band, playing spontaneous audiovisual work. It was
pretty underground. We played at Bill’s studio and
people started showing up; then at the Museum of
Modern Art in San Francisco. I guess at that time – ‘68,
‘69, ’70 – we were way ahead of the curve, but that
work kept growing.
TNYCJR: Even though you seemed to be established in
the Bay area in the ‘60s and ‘70s, shortly afterwards
you moved first to Boulder then Seattle, then Berlin
and finally Halifax. Was it primarily to teach music?
You also recorded with people like Gary Peacock, Jane
Ira Bloom during that period.
JG: Well, since life always changes that period came to
its natural conclusion. I, like a lot of folks, began to
look around for some other ways to live. I was fortunate
to meet my Buddhist teacher, Chögyam Trungpa, the
great Tibetan master, who introduced me to meditation
and another amazing time of life. Trungpa really
encouraged me to teach and I helped start Naropa
Institute, in Boulder, particularly the creative music
program, with [percussionist] Colin Walcott. So San
Francisco was pretty much over for me. I moved to
Colorado to teach at Naropa. During the summers we
were able to invite some of the greatest jazz improvisers
to inspire new ways of teaching. Each move in my life
from that point on seemed to involve teaching,
fortunately from one great innovative program to
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 41)
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