Jerry Granelli, a drummer whose credits include his work on A Charlie Brown Christmas as a member of the Vince Guaraldi Trio, died Tuesday at his Halifax home, CBC Music reports. He was 80 years old.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Jerry Granelli took drum lessons from jazz greats such as Gene Krupa and Joe Morello of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. At the age of 21 he started playing with the Johny Hamlin Quartet. Soon after, he joined the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Granelli spoke to Pitchfork in 2015 about the recording and legacy of Vince Guaraldi’s Trio A Charlie Brown Christmas. “Part of the magic of it all is that nobody had big plans while filming the soundtrack, like ‘That’s it,'” he said. “We just played, man. It’s a jazz record. It was pretty natural and real. ”He continued:
“The people heard the heart in it. In all honesty, after that I went creatively to the left with my career and didn’t think about it for a while; Jazz musicians are sometimes not as open as it may seem when it comes to people having hits or crossing things – everyone gets haughty. But then I was mature enough to realize that it was way beyond music. For many it was the first entry into jazz. And now that I have my credentials as an artist, I am proud and happy to be a part of it. “
After leaving the Vince Guaraldi Trio in 1964, he worked with artists such as Mose Allison, the Kingston Trio, and others. Granelli founded the groundbreaking psychedelic rock collective Light Sound Dimension and his first trip to Europe was in 1971 with the Grateful Dead. In addition to a successful recording career, he was an educator and co-founder of the Atlantic Jazz Festival. Two days before his death, he held a workshop at the Halifax Jazz Festival.
