September 2012 - The New York City Jazz Record

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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) Junior Mance …Jazz pianist Hidé Tanaka…Bassist Michi Fuji...violinist at Café Loup EVERY SUNDAY 6:30 - 9:30 pm NO COVER, JUST AWARD WINNING JAZZ AND FOOD 105 West 13th Street 212-255-4746 www.juniormance.com
Photo by Phillippe Marchin ARTIST FEATURE Though he only turned 30 earlier this year, Dan Tepfer already has an impressive resumé. The pianist has played duo gigs with Lee Konitz, Paul Motian and Gary Peacock, recorded acclaimed CDs in duo, trio and solo settings and won several jazz piano competitions. He has a fascinating background: an American raised in Paris. “My mom is an opera singer, so music was always around the house. My granddad, Chuck Ruff, was a jazz pianist in Eugene, Oregon. My dad’s a biologist, which probably explains why I got into science, too. I started reading books about astrophysics when I was a teenager. I still find the subject fascinating.” Music came first, Tepfer recalled, “I started studying classical piano at six. I went through the Paris conservatory system, but also started improvising and never really thought of myself as a classical pianist. I played a lot of boogie-woogie - I was into James P. Johnson and Jerry Lee Lewis. I taught myself jazz: I put together a trio in high school and played with local French guys in my teens.” Tepfer studied astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, though his interest in music remained. “I was genuinely passionate about astrophysics: it’s the science that deals with the biggest things we can possibly imagine, the origin of the universe, the nature of time. But I was playing gigs on the jazz scene there two or three times a week and I realized that music was where my heart really was.” After graduating, Tepfer switched to a Masters in Music at the New England Conservatory (NEC). “Danilo Perez, Bob Brookmeyer, Charlie Banacos, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Moses were all there. I found that they had an open-minded curriculum that allowed you to check out other forms of music and integrate them into your work. I studied composition with Brookmeyer - it was almost like a meta-deconstruction of what composing is. He would break things down to their bare essentials.” Tepfer credits additional artists with helping his development. “Fred Hersch has been a great mentor to me, starting when I was at NEC and I would take the bus down to New York to take lessons with him. He helped me get a foothold in the city by referring me for some great gigs when I first moved here.” In Paris, Tepfer also got to know French piano icon Martial Solal. “I only took a few lessons with him; he’s been more of a mentor than a teacher. I still go to his house to play for him and talk about music.” One of his greatest learning experiences has been working with the demanding Lee Konitz. “I was listening to Lee’s duo CD with Martial (Star Eyes, Hamburg 1983, hatOLOGY) right after I moved to New York and had a sudden urge to play with him. I asked Martial for an introduction. I went over to Lee’s house; we played and hit it off right away. He invited me to sit in with him at The Jazz Gallery, then we did a few duo gigs. We’ve ended up playing quite a bit over the last five years around the world. Every gig with him is Dan Tepfer by Ken Dryden absolutely different. Every time we’re feeling our way, because we want to be precisely connected at that exact moment and not just recreating some memory of where the music might have been last time.” Asked about his composing method, Tepfer explained, “I’ve gotten a lot of perspective on writing in the last few years. I wrote and orchestrated a piano concerto in 2010, which is a very labor-intensive process, since you’re writing out so many notes for the orchestra. I sometimes used to overwrite my jazz compositions; I was confusing jazz writing with classical writing. Jazz writing is a very minimalist framework, like the difference between writing a novel and a poem. There’s no point in playing with master improvisers if you’re going to micromanage them: the goal is to guide them into a vibe and let them work their magic. Nowadays, my jazz writing process is pretty quick.” The pianist has several recordings in the works or recently completed. A duo led by bassist Gary Peacock is scheduled for tracking in December. There are two Sunnyside releases due next year. “I just made a new trio record [after three previous trio albums: Five Pedals Deep, with Thomas Morgan and Ted Poor, and OXYGEN and Before the Storm, both with Jorge Roeder and Richie Barshay], which will be out in January. And I have an ongoing collaboration with [saxist] Ben Wendel; we’re excited about the duo record we made this summer. It’s coming out in March.” Tepfer’s latest recording is Goldberg Variations / Variations, also on Sunnyside. “I discovered the ‘Goldberg Variations’ in junior high school; I thought it was some of the most beautiful music I’d heard. I played a lot of Bach growing up, but I only bought a score of the Goldbergs after I got to NEC in 2003. I realized I could learn the first few variations, so I kept moving on. As I learned them, it felt natural for me to grab ideas and improvise with them. It was just something I did for fun until I was on a solo tour of the Czech Republic about four years ago, doing free improvisations along the line of my record Twelve Improvisations in Twelve Keys. I decided to play a few of the ‘Goldberg Variations’ one night and improvise on them. The audience reacted to it and I realized it would be a fun thing to keep doing. Over the last four years I’ve gotten more serious about playing the Goldbergs better and the project has evolved into a more rigorous framework where I play all 30 variations and improvise off of each one.” Tepfer’s solo performance this month at Greenwich House will be somewhat of a milestone for him: “This will be my first performance of the Goldberg Variations where I do all 30 of them, with improvisations, live. It’ll be around 80 minutes of playing. I’m excited about the challenge.” v For more information, visit dantepfer.com. Tepfer plays solo at Greenwich House Music School Sep. 14th, ShapeShifter Lab Sep. 17th, Smalls Sep. 24th with Alexis Cuadrado and Birdland Sep. 25th-29th as part of a Bud Powell Tribute. See Calendar. Recommended Listening: • George Schuller - Life’s Little Dramas (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2008) • Lee Konitz/Dan Tepfer - Duos with Lee (Sunnyside, 2008-09) • Rob Garcia 4 - Perennial (Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, 2009) • Billy Hart - Sixty-Eight (SteepleChase, 2009) • Dan Tepfer - Five Pedals Deep (Sunnyside, 2010) • Dan Tepfer - Goldberg Variations / Variations (Sunnyside, 2011) JSnycjr0912 8/13/12 1:02 PM Page 1 “Best Jazz Venue of the Year” NYC JAZZ RECORD★“Best Jazz Club” NY MAGAZINE+CITYSEARCH SAT-SUN SEP 1-2★7:30PM+9:30PM ONLY RON CARTER BIG BAND MON SEP 3 CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY HOLIDAY TUE SEP 4 ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ TRIO RICARDO RODRIGUEZ - HENRY COLE WED SEP 5 REUNION GENE BERTONCINI - MIKE MANIERI MICHAEL MOORE - JOE CORSELLO THU-SUN SEP 6-9 MULGREW MILLER TRIO TUE SEP 11 IVAN TAYLOR - RODNEY GREEN DUDUKA DA FEAT. FONSECA RONI BEN-HUR+SANTI DEBRIANO WED SEP 12 MIKE MORENO QUARTET JS10 CONCERT AARON PARKS - MATT BREWER - TED POOR WITH SPECIAL GUEST WARREN WOLF THU SEP 13 OLIVER LAKE ORGAN QUARTET JARED GOLD - FREDDIE HENDRIX - CHRIS BECK FRI SEP 14 OLIVER LAKE BIG BAND SAT-SUN SEP 15-16 PLUS SPECIAL TRIO 3 GUEST GERI ALLEN OLIVER LAKE - REGGIE WORKMAN - ANDREW CYRILLE JS10 CONCERT JS10 CONCERT TUE SEP 18 ED CHERRY TRIO PAT BIANCHI - BYRON LANDHAM WED-SUN SEP 19-23 DONALD HARRISON: QUANTUM LEAP OLIVER LAKE 70TH B’DAY CELEBRATION WITH SPECIAL GUEST DETROIT BROOKS - ZACCAI CURTIS - MAX MORAN - JOE DYSON TUE-SUN SEP 25-30 GERALD CLAYTON QUINTET DAYNA STEPHENS - LOGAN RICHARDSON - JOE SANDERS - JUSTIN BROWN WITH SPECIAL GUESTS SACHAL VASANDANI+GRETCHEN PARLATO [SEP 28 & 29 ONLY] MON SEP 10, 17 & 24 MINGUS BIG BAND DAVELL CRAWFORD THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | September 2012 7
Page 1: September 2012 | No. 125 B O B B Y
Page 4 and 5: NEW YORK @ NIGHT SMOKE ® JAZZ&SUPP
Page 8 and 9: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 | 7:30PM |$3
Page 10 and 11: ENCORE Rahn Burton by Matthew Mille
Page 12 and 13: Inner Circle by Alex Henderson Greg
Page 14 and 15: IN MEMORIAM Lol Coxhill - a great i
Page 16 and 17: Plays Toninho Horta Duduka Da Fonse
Page 18 and 19: GLOBE UNITY: BRAZIL Piano Masters S
Page 20 and 21: Alive at the Vanguard Fred Hersch T
Page 22 and 23: 22 September 2012 | THE NEW YORK CI
Page 24 and 25: Fortune Songs Jasmine Lovell-Smith
Page 26 and 27: 26 September 2012 | THE NEW YORK CI
Page 28: Live at Smalls Jesse Davis (smallsL
Page 31 and 32: Yesterday and Today Toots Thieleman
Page 33 and 34: Loverly Lenore Raphael/Howard Alden
Page 35 and 36: New York City’s most famous jazz
Page 37 and 38: Conduit Greg Diamond (Dot Time) by
Page 39 and 40: Golden Child Jared Gold (Posi-Tone)
Page 41 and 42: (INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6) a
Page 43 and 44: Wednesday, September 5 êPeter Brö
Page 45 and 46: Friday, September 14 êDan Tepfer
Page 47 and 48: Sunday, September 23 êFONT: Natsuk
Page 49 and 50: CLUB DIRECTORY • 449 Lounge 449 L
Page 51: BUCKY ADAMS - As an 11-year-old tru

September 2012 - The New York City Jazz Record

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