Henry Grimes

Henry Grimes

Henry Grimes performing, 2005
Background information
Born (1935-11-03) November 3, 1935
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres Jazz, avant-garde, spoken word
Occupation(s) Double bassist, composer
Instruments Double bass, violin
Years active Mid-1950s to 1969, 2003–present
Labels Atlantic, Ayler, Blue Note, Columbia, ESP-Disk, ILK Music, Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter, Prestige, Riverside, Verve
Website henrygrimes.com

Henry Grimes (born November 3, 1935) is a jazz double bassist, violinist, and poet.

After more than a decade of activity and performance, notably as a leading bassist in free jazz, Grimes completely disappeared from the music scene by 1970.[1] Grimes was often presumed dead, but he was rediscovered in 2002 and returned to performing.[1]

Biography

Early life and performing career

Henry Grimes, John Tchicai and Kresten Oosgood.

Henry Grimes was born in Philadelphia. He took up the violin at the age of 12, then began playing tuba, English horn, percussion, and finally the double bass in high school. He furthered his musical studies at Juilliard and established a reputation as a versatile bassist by the mid-1950s. He recorded or performed with saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Sonny Rollins, pianist Thelonious Monk, singer Anita O'Day, clarinetist Benny Goodman and many others.[1] At a time when bassist Charles Mingus was experimenting with a second bass player in his band, Grimes was the person he selected for the job.[1] One of his earliest appearances on film is captured in the Bert Stern documentary on the Newport Jazz Festival of 1958, Jazz on a Summer's Day. He was 22 years old, and as word spread among the musicians about his extraordinary playing, he ended up playing with six different groups in the festival that weekend: those of Benny Goodman, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, and Tony Scott. And though Henry’s name never even appeared in the festival’s printed program, “New York Times” critic Bosley Crowther took note of the remarkable young bassist and listed him as one of the festival’s primary players. (Source http://henrygrimes.com/biography.)

Gradually growing interested in free jazz, Grimes performed with most of the music's important names, including pianist Cecil Taylor, trumpeter Don Cherry, saxophonists Steve Lacy, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler. He released one album, The Call, as a trio leader for the ESP-Disk record label in 1965. The album features Perry Robinson on clarinet and Tom Price on drums and is considered to be representative of his career.

Disappearance and return to performing

Henry Grimes.

In the late 1960s, Grimes career came to a halt after his move to California. It was commonly assumed Grimes had died; he was listed as such in several jazz reference works. Then Marshall Marrotte, a social worker and jazz fan, set out to discover Grimes's fate once and for all. In 2002, he found Grimes alive but nearly destitute, without a bass to play, renting a tiny apartment in Los Angeles, California, writing poetry and doing odd jobs to support himself. He had fallen out of touch with the jazz world and was unaware Albert Ayler had died in 1970, but was eager to perform again.[2]

Word spread of Grimes's return, and some musicians and fans offered their help. Bassist William Parker donated a bass (nicknamed "Olive Oil", for its distinctive greenish color) and with David Gage's help had it shipped from New York to Los Angeles, and others assisted with travel expenses and arranging performances. Grimes's return was featured in The New York Times and on National Public Radio. A documentary film is planned, as is a biography.

Grimes has made up for lost time: in 2003 he performed at over two dozen music festivals or other appearances. He received a returning hero's welcome at the free jazz-oriented Vision Festival, and began teaching lessons and workshops for bassists. His November 2003 appearance on trumpeter Dennis González' Nile River Suite was the bassist's second recording in more than 35 years,[3] the first being a JazzNewYork recording of a solo concert that Grimes played on the air from WKCR-FM's studios at Columbia University in New York within weeks of his return to New York. In 2004 he recorded as leader with David Murray and Hamid Drake; and in 2005 with guitarist Marc Ribot, who also wrote an introduction to Grimes' first book, Signs Along the Road, published in March 2007 by buddy's knife jazzedition in Cologne, Germany, a collection of Grimes' poetry in which he presents his selection of entries from thousands of pages of his writings during the long years he was not playing music. Also in 2007, Grimes recorded with drummer Rashied Ali, with whom he has played a half-dozen duo concerts and a trio with Marilyn Crispell, and in 2008 with Paul Dunmall and Andrew Cyrille, a co-leader trio called the Profound Sound Trio, among others.

Since his return in 2003, Grimes has played at many venues around New York and on tour in the United States, Canada, and 29 countries in Europe, the Far East, and Brazil; often working as a leader, Henry Grimes has been making music with Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell, Ted Curson, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Dave Douglas, Andrew Lamb, Joe Lovano, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker, High Priest (from Anti-Pop Consortium), Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor (with whom Grimes resumed playing in October, 2006 after 40 years), John Tchicai, and many others. In the past few years, Grimes has also held a number of residencies and offered workshops and master classes on major campuses (including Berklee College of Music, Hamilton College, New England Conservatory, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, Humber College, and several more). Mr. Grimes has released or played on a dozen new recordings, made his professional debut on a second instrument (the violin) at Lincoln Center at the age of 70, and has been creating illustrations to accompany his new recordings and publications. He has received many honors in recent years, including four Meet the Composer grants. He can be heard on nearly 90 recordings on various labels, including Atlantic, Ayler Records, Blue Note, Columbia, ESP-Disk, ILK Music, Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter Records, Prestige, Riverside, and Verve. Henry Grimes is now a resident of New York City and has a busy schedule of performances, clinics, and international tours.

In 2011, the Chelsea Art Museum hosted a re-creation of the performance Black Zero, a happening created in the 1960s by pioneering media artist Aldo Tambellini. Tambellini performed the multi-media piece on several occasions between 1965 and 1968, often in collaboration with jazz musicians such as Bill Dixon and Cecil McBee. The performance at the Chelsea Art Museum was produced by Swiss conceptual artist Christoph Draeger, who invited Grimes to join. Grimes played with Ben Morea, accompanying simultaneous slide and film projections by Aldo Tambellini and sound recordings of the late Calvin Hernton's radical poetry.[4]

Discography

As leader

As sideman

with Mose Allison

with Albert Ayler

with Roy Burns

with Don Cherry

with Andrew Cyrille and Paul Dunmall - Profound Sound Trio

with Walt Dickerson

with Shafi Hadi

with Roy Haynes

with Lee Konitz

with Rolf Kühn

with Carmen Leggio

with Gerry Mulligan

with William Parker

with Marc Ribot

with Sonny Rollins

with Pharoah Sanders

with Shirley Scott

with Archie Shepp

with Billy Taylor

with Cecil Taylor

with Lennie Tristano

with McCoy Tyner

Books

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Weiss, Ken (September 2004). "Henry Grimes interview, July 12, 2003". Cadence Magazine (Redwood, NY: Cadnor Ltd.) 30 (9): 5–10. ISSN 0162-6973.
  2. ↑ Neil Strauss, "Silent 30 Years, A Jazzman Resurfaces; Left New York in '68, Plays Again Tonight", New York Times, 26 May 2003. Accessed 26 May 2008.
  3. ↑ Hreha, Scott (2004-07-16). "NY Midnight Suite + Nile River Suite (review)". One Final Note. Scott Hreha. Retrieved December 30, 2006.
  4. ↑ "Back In The New York Groove!" Accessed 10 December 2011.
  5. ↑ arwulf, arwulf. "Debut Rarities, Vol. 3". Retrieved 2010-11-29. Discographical indexes list the band under the name of the Shafi Hadi Sextet.

Bibliography

External links

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