| 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 and 2 + 5 channel mix to DSD should gain approval from audiophiles and surround-sound music fans. This is a Super Audio CD Hybrid that plays on all SACD and CD Players.
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."
|