George Gruntz

Born in Basel, Switzerland, George Gruntz (1932-2013) was gifted enough at the piano to study at Zurich’s conservatoire from the age of 14. He won several first prizes at Swiss jazz festivals, and worked as a pianist/arranger for Basel Radio, while holding down a day job as a car salesman. He was a member of the Newport International Jazz Band in 1958 (alongside Duško Gojković, Albert Mangelsdorff and Gábor Szabó).

In 1960, Gruntz composed and recorded the music for a German feature film Seelische Grausamkeit (‘Mental Cruelty’) with Belgian saxophonist Barney Wilen and drummer Kenny Clarke, then living in Europe. Sadly legal difficulties meant this impressive album was recalled and destroyed shortly after release. Gruntz turned fully professional only in 1963. In the mid-1960s he recorded two albums of Baroque music in jazz interpretations, with Gruntz mostly playing harpsichord. These were a more modernist take on the ‘Play Bach’ concept, which had been so successful for French pianist, Jacques Loussier. He explored Middle Eastern music on Noon in Tunisia from 1967, which featured an impressive lineup of American saxophonist Sahib Shihab, German bass player Eberhard Weber, French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and fellow Swiss (and frequent collaborator) Daniel Humair on drums, plus a full cast of Bedouin musicians on ney (flute), zoukra (oboe), mezoued (bagpipes) and percussion.

Gruntz rounded out the 1960s playing with Phil Wood’s European Rhythm Machine alongside Humair again. From 1972 into the 1990s, he found time to run the Berlin Jazz Festival. He convened an all-star European ‘Piano Conclave in the mid-1970s, featuring Gordon Beck, Wolfgang Dauner, Jasper van’t Hof, Joachim Kuhn and Martial Solal on an array of different keyboards beside the requisite piano and Rhodes. He, Humair and Franco Ambrosetti started a big band (called simply The Band) in 1972. From 1978 this became the George Gruntz Concert Big Band, which became an international festival favourite, with members over the years including Benny Bailey, Jimmy Knepper, Woody Shaw, John Scofield, Lew Tabackin, Manfred Schoof, Ray Anderson, Marvin Stamm, Palle Mikkelborg, Adam Nussbaum, Terrell Stafford, Lew Soloff and Jack Walrath. In 1992, he took the band on a tour of China, one of the first jazz bands to do this. Gruntz was a prolific composer and arranger, and on top of all of his other activities, he collaborated with composer Hans Werner Henze, wrote a jazz opera, a ballet, and several soundtracks.

Key Recordings:
Mental Cruelty (Decca 1960, rereleased Atavistic 2003)
Noon In Tunisia (MPS 1967)
Beyond Another Wall (TCB 1992)