Our podcast interview this week was with Atlanta’s big band leader and ubiquitous performer, trumpeter/vocalist Joe Gransden, who talks eloquently in Episode 35 of Music Life and Times not only about his beginnings and career, but of the returns music delivers to all who commit themselves to learning to play.
Joe’s been plying Atlanta with jazz, from trios to big bands, since he moved here in 1991 and enrolled at Georgia State University.
“I was on tour with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, but wanted to finish college. My parents had moved here from Buffalo and I decided to come here and enroll for my final two years at Georgia State University.”
The next decade was something of a tug of war between Atlanta and New York City. Gransden, who was born just north of The City, returned there after graduating to work as a freelance trumpeter. Then back to “a more family friendly” Atlanta, which also proved work friendly as his trio that included Double-Bassist Neal Starkey worked virtually every night, “and a weekly brunch,” through the mid ‘90s. Then back to New York for one more stint in the late ‘90s that ended in 2001 with the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“I had to make a decision about where to plant my roots.”
Perhaps it was Charissa, whom he met and married here, who settled him for good. But it was also that torrent of work that Atlanta was providing, near nightly club gigs and more—parties, weddings, socials. “My quartet and quintet were working 200-plus gigs a year.
“Still I wanted to do something different,” which was to share his passion for those early 20th century standards we know as the Great American Songbook, and “I thought there was room in Atlanta for a big band.”
Enter Wes Funderburk, trombonist and arranger. Together they wrote arrangements and created a sound, big and jazz infused. It attracted many of Atlanta’s best players, and standing-room-only audiences for Big Band Mondays at Johnny Scatena’s Café 290 in Sandy Springs.
“We were constantly adding new arrangements to the books and new players. We had a huge base of musicians and even recorded live there.” The Café 290 performances led to more work, a score of engagements for holiday parties, corporate events, and an assortment of other private functions.
“It was a dream come true,” Gransden said. And it lasted 11 years. Until COVID-19 took down Café 290 and pretty much shut down live music in Atlanta and everywhere else.”
But that’s far from the end of the Gransden story. Resilient, determined, and tireless, Joe performs as much as any Atlanta jazz musician, in and outside of Atlanta, from clubs to concert halls, at the jazz jam he hosts Monday nights at Napoleon’s in Decatur, Georgia, and heading up all types of groups, from small night club combos to, of course, the big band.