Vancouver '08

For the third Jerry Granelli V16 release we wanted to show just how this band works by producing a performance DVD as part of the package. Directed by Colin McKenzie, whose 2002 documentary Jerry Granelli: In the Moment is still the best introduction to Granelli's world, Live at Ironworks documents the band's Vancouver gig days before going into the studio to make the record. Featuring many of the new tunes played in an even more freewheeling fashion, the video shows the non-verbal interconnectedness that is so much a part of the band's improvisational dynamic. (The NTSC DVD, which also includes some interview material, is only available as part of this 2-disc set.) V16 is the culmination of Jerry's longtime love affair with 2-guitar bands, starting in 1975 at Boulder's Naropa Institute, and notably including his '90s Berlin-based band UFB (in which his then-student Christian Kgel also played). And, like everything he does, it's an expression of his Buddhist practice: Since I encountered Buddhism there's been this whole idea of how an artist doesn't pollute, that the art is a way of waking people up and not laying trips on them. That somehow it's about getting it down to this simple task orientation of serving the music, and trying not to govern the audience's experience, letting everyone have their own experience of what they're hearing, including hating it. That the music is a reflection in some sense of the musician's mind, the openness that they might be experiencing in that moment. There's almost a different role for each instrument in every composition. In J. Anthony's 'Planting' the drums are the main soloist; in Tronzo's 'The Truth' he and I are basically the rhythm players, the bass is the melody instrument. Now, even more, the roles are broken down. It's a way of composing for the instruments that's less predictable, and much more open or vast. 24/88.2 recording mixed to stereo and 5.0.