Jerry Granelli/V16 - The Sonic Temple

Genre jazz Publisher Songlines External Links Official Jerry Granelli Website Official Songlines Website

Sixteen performances on two discs, and recorded live last summer, The Sonic Temple showcases drummer Jerry Granelli's perfect touch, pitch and ear for the almost-melancholy emotional statement. The music here is spidery and seemingly undefined, but these compositions gather themselves as they go along. The result is a record that could be characterized as muted blues, or post-blues. As such, it makes a great companion to one of the best and most underrated jazz records of the '90s, Granelli's A Song I Thought I Heard Buddy Sing, on which the spirit of New Orleans transpired through the strangely still performances. (Buddy, of course, refers to the legendary and shadowy proto-jazz trumpeter, Buddy Bolden, and the record remains a neglected classic, not to mention one that's pretty affecting these days, given the Crescent City's recent travails.)

On disc one, the quartet - Granelli, J. Anthony Granelli on bass, Christian Kogel on guitar, and slide guitarist David Tronzo - sound a bit more up than they do on the second disc, recorded a day later. On disc two, "Immeasurable" cannily suggests blues without sliding into a single cliched lick or section; Granelli sets up a simple, swinging drum pattern that lays the foundation for an out-of-meter composition that is actually quite formal. A simple guitar line that is both bluesy and Monkian contrasts with a gravely descending line, and the subtle dissonances and high harmonics actually sound like blues. Yet they're stark, a bit distanced, and altogether compelling.

Elsewhere, Granelli and V16 do James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" as "It's a Man's World," and cut out the grease and melodrama in favor of another low-key but twisted interpretation. The music throughout seems to never rise above a whisper, but this is tough stuff well beyond the reach of your average bunch of jam-band fanatics. It's highly recommended.