Henry Grimes

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Henry Grimes
Grimes in 2005
Grimes in 2005
Background information
Birth nameHenry Alonzo Grimes
Born(1935-11-03)November 3, 1935
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
DiedApril 15, 2020(2020-04-15) (aged 84)
New York City, US
GenresJazz, avant-garde
Occupation(s)Musician, composer
Instrument(s)Double bass, violin
Years activeMid-1950s–1969, 2003–2020
LabelsAtlantic, Ayler, Blue Note, Columbia, ESP-Disk, ILK Music, Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter, Prestige, Riverside, Verve
Websitewww.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/henry-grimes

Henry Grimes (November 3, 1935 – April 15, 2020) was an American

double bassist
and violinist.

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 to have died, but he was discovered in 2002 and returned to performing.[1]

Biography

Early life and career

Henry Alonzo Grimes was born in

Juilliard
and established a reputation as a versatile bassist by the mid-1950s.

Grimes recorded or performed with pianist

saxophonists Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan and Sonny Rollins, pianists Thelonious Monk and McCoy Tyner, singer Anita O'Day, clarinetist Benny Goodman and many others.[1] 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. Grimes 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.[3] 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.[4]

Gradually growing interested in the burgeoning

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 1966. The album features Perry Robinson
on clarinet and drummer Tom Price and is considered to be representative of his career at that time.

Disappearance and return

Henry Grimes, Vision XIII Festival

In the late 1960s, Grimes's career came to a halt after his move to

National Public Radio
. A biography, Music to Silence to Music, was published by Northway Books in London in 2015.

Making up for lost time, Grimes performed at more than two dozen music festivals or other appearances in 2003. He received a returning hero's welcome at the free jazz-oriented

High Priest (from Anti-Pop Consortium), Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor (with whom Grimes resumed playing in October, 2006 after 40 years), John Tchicai
, and many others.

Henry Grimes, John Tchicai and Kresten Osgood. (2006)

In 2011, the

Calvin Hernton's radical poetry.[8]
In all, between Henry Grimes's return to the music world in 2003 and his 80th year, 2016, he played more than 640 concerts, including many festivals, in 30 countries.

In his last years, Grimes also held a number of residencies and offered workshops and master classes on major campuses, including

Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter Records, Prestige, Riverside, and Verve
. Grimes was a resident of New York City and had a busy schedule of performances, clinics, and international tours.

On June 7, 2016, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Arts for Art/Vision Festival on opening day at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. He stopped performing in 2018, with the relentless progression of the effects of Parkinson's disease causing severe disabilities.[2]

Death

Henry Grimes died on April 15, 2020, at the age of 84 from complications of

COVID-19.[2] The date of his death and its cause were confirmed by his wife, Margaret Davis-Grimes, to the Jazz Foundation of America.[9]

Discography

As leader or co-leader

As sideman

with Mose Allison

with Albert Ayler

With Bill Barron

with

Roy Burns

with

Don Cherry

with Walt Dickerson

with Shafi Hadi

  • Debut Rarities, vol. 3 (recorded in 1957, NYC, by the Shafi Hadi Sextet;[10] released as Original Jazz Classics CD OJCCD-1821-2 in 1993)

with Roy Haynes

with Lee Konitz

with Rolf Kühn

  • Be My Guest (
    Panorama
    )

with Carmen Leggio

  • The Carmen Leggio Group (Jazz Unlimited)

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

with Marzette Watts

with Frank Wright

Additional recent CD releases can be found at |url=https://henrygrimes.com/store Archived 2020-06-11 at the Wayback Machine].

Books

  • Henry Grimes, Signs Along the Road (
    buddy's knife jazzedition
    , 2007)

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 0162-6973
    .
  2. ^ a b c Schudel, Matt (April 23, 2020). "Henry Grimes, jazz bassist who returned to music after 30-year absence, dies at 84 of coronavirus". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Russ, Valerie (April 25, 2020). "Henry Grimes, 84, bassist who played with jazz greats". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  4. ^ "Henry Grimes Biographies". Henry Grimes.com. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
  5. ^ Strauss, Neil (May 26, 2003), "Silent 30 Years, A Jazzman Resurfaces; Left New York in '68, Plays Again Tonight", The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
  6. ^ Ansell, Derek (April 23, 2020). "Obituary: Henry Grimes". Jazz Journal. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  7. ^ Hreha, Scott (July 16, 2004). "NY Midnight Suite + Nile River Suite (review)". One Final Note. Scott Hreha. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006. Retrieved December 30, 2006.
  8. ^ "Back In The New York Groove!" Archived 2011-11-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
  9. ^ "Bassist Henry Grimes Dies at 84". DownBeat. April 18, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  10. ^ arwulf, arwulf. "Debut Rarities, Vol. 3". Retrieved April 25, 2020. Discographical indexes list the band under the name of the Shafi Hadi Sextet.

Bibliography

External links
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