The simple answer to the question that drummer Jerry Granelli poses on What I Hear Now is "horns." He hears horns over the foundation of his regular trio with saxophonist Dani Oore and bassist Simon Fisk who uses the 3 string bassetto here. The mix is three reeds, including tenor saxophonist Mike Murley, joined by a trombone. - AllAboutJazz

There are points in our lives, which seem like highlights. 1987 was one for me, which set me on the path to this recording.
Moved from Seattle to Nova Scotia, Teaching in Berlin,– doing my first two cds as a leader, meeting producer Lee Townsend, recording the cd.
“A song I heard Buddy Sing”— people entering my life. Basically another new chapter unfolding.
An unknown desire to create a body of work as leader composer, a great inspiration was the work of Max Roach.- I remember seeing Max Roach in New York City just before he died in 2007. I walked into Carroll Music on 55th and could not believe my eyes. At 83, that man had rented a room and was in there…practicing.

When I look back from here I see 20 recordings.
Each of these people and places had a different yet profound effect
in getting me here.

Why do I write music? How do I write music?
If I could stop, maybe I would…
I absorb what is around me, I write for the musicians that I am playing with at the time; their voices, their sound finds its way into my head. I write what I hear.
It is all about the story for me, allowing the music to tell me a tale, a libretto that I have to work with.
Bill Frisell and Robben Ford, I could just taste the music they could make together then Michael Ondaatje’s work inspired the recording “A Song I thought I heard Buddy Sing”. There were these narratives and these sounds. My Sandhills Reunion recording went the other way—an Octet with words and stories by Rinde Eckert. I was writing an aural screenplay for an expansive landscape.

This latest recording was me hearing the sound of Mike Murley and Dani Oore together, two tenors. Over a winter I began to write. I was playing weekly sessions with a group including Andrew MacKelvie – alto sax and Andrew Jackson – trombone. Two young improvisers living in Halifax. Great horn arrangements are always bouncing off the walls in my head.
All this came two or three years after I formed my first trio with Simon Fisk on bass and Dani Oore. I realized that they/we, became the foundation. The trio allows me to create and write for this always-expanding orchestra that has been haunting me for almost thirty years.

I have always loved playing with Mike Murley and here was a chance to go into the studio to create something together. When we were recording each of the players came to the music with their own voice, but it was always there to serve the music. They seamlessly combined what I had written with inspired improvisation. And I brought together two generations of Halifax horns.
We worked hard and we found a balance, that place between too tight and too loose.
This is What I Hear Now