Jerry Granelli

The V-16 Project

“Since the early 1960s, percussionist Granelli has worked with an amazing array of musicians, including Ornette Coleman and Sly Stone. At the end of the decade he played free music on bills with Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, which sealed his taste for certain guitar sounds…Boundary crossing is to be expected from a musician who admires both Squarepusher and Max Roach, but Granelli’s blend is grounded at a deeper level, in discerning awareness of the properties and character of sounds, alone and in combination. The string players share his awareness. Far from simply elaborating themes and riffs, their improvisations spin out deliberately textured webs of contrasting or complementary sound qualities.”

—Julian Cowley, The Wire

The V16 Project is Jerry Granelli’s latest sonic adventure. It features a two-guitar frontline and diverse approach – jazz improvisation, blues-rock-funk fusion, freeform jamming, sampled soundscapes and more – making it equally at home in both jazz and avant-rock bins, at jazz festivals and jamband venues. Highlighting the superb interplay of famous slide virtuoso Tronzo, lyrical German guitar ace Kogel (from Jerry’s band UFB), and versatile bassist Cox, the group hones its style on a surprising range of material. There are drummerless acoustic improvs, Kogel’s trancey bossa nova, Jerry’s waltz-to-freetime-to-Latin Mr. Wong suite, a psych-tinged, freegrass flavoured extended cover of the old standard “Temptation,” and several varieties of soul jazz by Cox. Expect the unexpected: as Granelli comments in his note, “The heart of the band is risk, not knowing, curiosity and nowness.” The high definition, 24 bit/176.4K digital recording should gain approval from audiophiles and surround-sound music fans.

Halifax-based percussionist-composer Jerry Granelli grew up in San Francisco where he studied with Joe Morello and drummed for pianists Denny Zeitlin and Vince Guaraldi (he’s on A Charlie Brown Christmas on Fantasy and the Charlie Brown TV soundtracks). He pioneered world jazz fusion and electro-acoustic percussion during the 60’s hippie era, established the music department at the Naropa Institute in Boulder in ’76, and has had a continuous teaching career since then in Boulder, Seattle, Halifax and Berlin. In the early ’80s he performed and recorded in a trio with Ralph Towner and Gary Peacock for ECM. He has recorded as a leader for Evidence, Intuition, ITM, Koch, Love Slave and other labels, and performed and recorded with longtime musical associates Mose Allison, Jay Clayton, Jane Ira Bloom, Glen Moore, Anthony Cox, Dave Friedman, and Jamie Saft, as well as projects with Bill Frisell, Robben Ford, Julian Priester, Charlie Haden, Kenny Garrett, and DJ Stinkin’ Rich. His previous two-guitar quartet, UFB, toured extensively and recorded two CDs for Intuition in the mid-90s.

Granelli inspires admiration for his effortless swing and inventiveness and his constant search for new means of expression: two years ago he released a CD of duets for reeds and sound sculpture created specially for his use (Iron Sky). He is also the subject of In the Moment, an hour-long documentary for VisionTV and CBC-TV. Jazz Times magazine has called him “one of those uncategorizable veteran percussionists who’s done it all.” With this latest release he shows there’s still a lot more to come. Granelli burns with an intensity fuelled by a passion for “the pursuit of the spirit of spontaneity.”

“…with its slide guitars, sampled grooves, and funky bass lines, The V16 Project is the closest thing to a rock record that Reif has issued. A more apt description, however, would be to call it jazz for Tom Waits fans. It doesn’t take much to imagine the California baritone growling atop Granelli’s wonderfully wacky rendition of the Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed standard ‘Temptation’, while ‘Hobo Comedies’, like Waits himself, seems to borrow equally from both Harry Partch and Don Van Vliet. All the music here is instrumental, but The V16 Project is most accessible when slide guitarist David Tronzo assumes the singer’s role. Tronzo…is a kind of postmodern bluesman: whether he’s waxing abstract on ‘Mutator’ or ladling barbecue sauce onto ‘Family Man’, he plays with complete emotional commitment.” — Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight

“Judging by its grille and supercharged front end, Jerry Granelli’s new thing is built to cruise…restlessly shifting among styles and mixing them up to the point where you can’t tell them apart…Kögel and Tronzo have a striking range between the two of them, the former tending toward a more pointed sound and the latter usually smooth as butter. When it’s time for a lyrical moment, they meld together into ripples and swirls, as on ‘O Bossa, Where Art Thou?’…Granelli himself certainly makes no unnecessary gestures…Whether on a country-rock of ‘Family Man,’ the deep rumbling funk of ‘Texas Oklahoma Conspiracy,’ or the headbanging jam of ‘Black Confederacy,’ he’s got it covered. The 11 minute opener gets deep into interlocking rhythms, which seem to be Granelli’s favorite place to dwell…” — Nils Jacobson, AllAboutJazz.com

“In the liners, drummer Jerry Granelli mentions, ‘the heart of the band is risk, not knowing, curiosity and nowness.’ In effect, this quasi blues-jazz improvisational rock centric outing is entrenched within various non-formulaic events. The mixture of composed material and explorative tendencies all adds up to an effort that defies rigid boundaries…The guitarists’ odd tunings, complete with fuzz-toned ponderings and various blues-based variations, skirt avant-garde territory…This production is awash with elusive qualities…(Recommended…)” — Glenn Astarita, Jazzreview.com

**** “The music this band makes is markedly different than Granelli’s past two guitar, bass and drum lineups (News From the Street, Broken Circle). First off, Granelli has a hybrid electro-acoustic drum kit now, and Kögel and Tronzo are both armed with samplers (mostly for looping purposes, not sound effects) and the results are astounding. In the liner notes, Granelli claims that ‘this music is based on three vehicles: spontaneous composition, pre-composed pieces, and sonic adventure.’ There’s something to be said for truth in advertising. The album starts with the only composition from outside the band, the old standard ‘Temptation.’ Acoustic and electric guitars are introduced, looped, and layered until they sound like a virtual swarm as the tune kicks into high gear. The band works extremely well together: Cox is generally the anchor, with Granelli supplying rhythm and extra ‘sonic adventure’ through his electronic percussion. Kögel and Tronzo are basically free to indulge themselves on all manner of guitar (electric, acoustic, slide, wah-wah, fuzz)…In the hands of these musicians, spontaneous composition is not exactly the same as free improvisation, as there is both a strong rhythmic and melodic element present in all these tunes, and each player is a consummate listener. The tunes range from quite intense, ‘Temptation’ and ‘Black Confederacy,’ to the beautiful and lyrical ‘Family Man,’ which features some fantastic slide work from Tronzo. Adventurous listeners and avant-guitar fans should definitely check out The V16 Project.” — Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide

“Since all four musicians play in the ‘now’, anyone listening to this CD will find something recognizable in it, whether that be blues, rock, funk or jazz improvisation, all of which, by way of sampled soundscapes and freeform, four-sided jamming, turns into something both startlingly familiar and virtually unheard of…a collection of fascinating versions of groove, creative musical interaction, and a liberating sense of self-structuring form….We hear fragments of delta blues, Gregorian chant, turntable scratches, feedback loops and quarter tones, embedded in various pleasant grooves that virtually sample the history of American jazz…The V16 Project is not about muscle. It’s about the power of the musical imagination.” — Stephen Pedersen, Halifax Chronicle Herald