Biography
Born on 24 June 1932 in Basel, Switzerland, Gruntz first drew notice as pianist with the Marshall Brown International Youth Band at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, where Dusko Goykovich was also a member. During the early 1960s he collaborated with prominent American jazz figures such as Dexter Gordon, and later that decade joined Phil Woods in the European Rhythm Machine. Appointed musical director of the Zurich Schauspielhaus in 1970, he remained in the post through 1984 while serving from 1972 to 1994 as artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Festival. That same year he helped establish a multinational all-star big band alongside Flavio Ambrosetti, Franco Ambrosetti and Daniel Humair; he has led the ensemble ever since under the name George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, drawing a steady roster of accomplished players that has included Woods, Gordon, Woody Shaw, Lew Soloff, Ray Anderson and Eddie Daniels. Gruntz has also pursued projects built around multiple keyboards under the title Piano Conclave and performed with forward-thinking artists such as Don Cherry and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. More successfully than most, he has moved repeatedly between jazz and other idioms, writing symphonies, ballets and operas that sit beside pieces for jazz ensembles of every scale, along with film scores and the jazz oratorio “The Holy Grail Of Jazz And Joy,” featured on the album Theatre. His output reflects a probing, boundary-testing stance toward the music.
Albums