Christmas gifts for the fitness fan on your list
A Charlie Brown Christmas With: Jerry Granelli Trio
Where: Arden Theatre, 5 St. Anne St., St. Albert When: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $32 adults, $24 youth, from Arden Theatre box office (780-459-1542 or ardentheatre.com) When drummer Jerry Granelli, bassist Fred Marshall and their boss, pianist Vince Guaraldi, set foot in a San Francisco recording studio in 1965 to record music for a CBS television special, they had no idea how significant that session would become.
Drummer Jerry Granelli revisits Christmas favourite at the Arden
Nearly 50 years later, the tracks for A Charlie Brown Christmas are among the most popular Christmas recordings ever. But their work scoring several Peanuts specials was only one facet of a long, varied career for jazz master Granelli, who turns 74 this month. After his stint with Guaraldi, the drummer began exploring more adventurous jazz styles, supporting some of the top jazz singers and playing beyond jazz for acts like Sly Stone, The Grateful Dead and The Kingston Trio. After living and teaching in Boulder, Seattle and Berlin, he settled in Halifax, where he co-founded the Atlantic Jazz Festival, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1999 and creating his own notable discography.
When the drummer revisits A Charlie Brown Christmas at the Arden Tuesday, he’s joined by two favourite colleagues, Calgary bassist Simon Fisk and Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin, and children from the St. Albert Youth Choir for the vocal parts. Q: Was working in Vince Guaraldi’s trio your first stable gig? A: That was the game- changer. Vince had recorded Cast Your Fate To The Wind, so I was coming into a real working jazz trio with a hit record. He gave me a weekend shot when I was 22 ... and I pulled it off. The jazz critic Ralph Gleason started writing about us so it became national. And Vince gave me so much training in what it took to play every night. I was 24 at the time we did Charlie Brown. He gave me discipline. He never compromised an inch. Q: Do you remember much about the Charlie Brown Christmas session? A:-It was in Coast Recorders, San Francisco. We had made some records so going into the studio wasn’t a big deal. It was fun but we never thought it would go anywhere. It didn’t sell that well that year but the cumulative effect of 40 years made it a social phenomenon. It grew slowly. Q: So it wasn’t recorded with the visuals running in front of you? A: No. That’s why the pieces all fade out, because we didn’t know how long they would be, because the animation wasn’t done. We knew what the scenes were going to be but that was it. Q: I think a lot of people’s favourite is the Linus And Lucy theme. Is it correct to call that piece boogie woogie style? A: Sure. It’s those ostinato bass lines, boogie woogie and a Latin blues feeling coming together. I’ve had so many young piano players in university just delighted to learn that piece, because if you can play that left hand line, you can play the piano. You know Vince Guaraldi was a self-taught piano player but his understanding of Fats Waller and that music was scholarly.
Q: When did you mount this Charlie Brown Christmas project?
A: Last year, Ottawa Children’s Theatre wanted it for a fundraiser and I was totally down for that and then we did it here in Halifax. All sold out. Amazing. It’s a nice evening, and the Charles Schulz estate was kind enough to give us these little silent film clips for the key moments. But it’s not just a trip down memory lane because we play the music for real.
Q: In the spirit of jazz, you’re still open to elaborating on what the original music offered?
A: Oh yeah, it’s not a reproduction. I couldn’t do it that way. That’s one reason I didn’t do it for so long because I felt, as an artist, I had something to say about this music. It’s genuine. The music is stretched. It’s probably still introducing people to jazz and that’s good. And I have a greater appreciation for the spirit. There’s this amazing sweetness to it that people have allowed to touch their lives. The children’s choirs are really fun. The fact that Simon Fisk and Chris Gestrin are up there, young players playing this music ... Simon is there ’cause he’s a brilliant bass player, and Chris is an excellent pianist but it’s hard too because he’s the main soloist. It’s got to be new and fresh, like playing Bach or Mozart,
Q: Doesn’t most of your part on the drums involve brushes?
A: Yeah, and the drum parts are pretty simple. I love to play the brushes. It feels so great to just sit there and get that brush swishing, get that trio swinging, with a little motion of your wrist.
Q: I know you discovered Buddhism back in the 1970s, so I wonder, does Christmas have much significance for you?
A: It does because I’m a human being on the planet, and because my kids and grandkids still like Christmas. For me it’s all connected to this humanness that happens this time of year. There’s wisdom connected to tradition, and I remember Christmas when I was a kid in a big Italian family. Do I like the perversion of consumerism? No. But I think that’s in Linus’s little speech. CBS hated that, you know. They didn’t want it on the air. And you know who protected it? CocaCola.
Q: You’re kidding.
A: Isn’t that amazing? How’s that for twisting the whole system? There are so many wonderful twists to this story. I mean, using a jazz trio to make a popular hit. How anti-establishment is that?