The Miraculous Return of the Great Henry Grimes!
There's a great new musician now living, working, and teaching in New York City. He's new, but he has tremendous musical knowledge, unsurpassed credentials, and the highest levels of artistry at his command.
Who can this be?
Master jazz musician and poet HENRY GRIMES has played more than 3OO concerts in 23 countries (including many festivals) since May of 'O3, when he made his astonishing return to the music world after 35 years away. He was born and raised in Philadelphia and attended the Mastbaum School and Juilliard. In the '5O's and '6O's, he came up in the music playing and touring with Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson, “Bullmoose” Jackson, “Little” Willie John, and a number of other great R&B / soul musicians of that era; but drawn to jazz, he went on to play, tour, and record with many great jazz musicians of that era, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and Rev. Frank Wright. Sadly, a trip to the West Coast to work with Al Jarreau and Jon Hendricks went awry, leaving Henry in Los Angeles at the end of the '6O's with a broken bass he couldn't pay to repair, so he sold it for a small sum and faded away from the music world.
Many years passed with nothing heard from Henry Grimes, as he lived in his tiny rented room in an S.R.O. hotel in downtown Los Angeles, working as a manual laborer, custodian, and maintenance man, and writing many volumes of handwritten poetry. He was discovered there by a Georgia social worker and fan in 2OO2 and was given a bass by William Parker, and after only a few weeks of ferocious woodshedding, Henry emerged from his room to begin playing concerts around Los Angeles and shortly afterwards made a triumphant return to New York City in May, 'O3 to play in the Vision Festival. Since then, often working as a leader, he has played, toured, and / or recorded with many of today's music heroes, such as Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell, Ted Curson, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Dave Douglas, Andrew Lamb, Joe Lovano, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, and Cecil Taylor.
Henry has also given a number of workshops and master classes on major campuses, released several new recordings, made his professional debut on a second instrument, the violin, at the age of 7O, has now published the first volume of his poetry, “Signs Along the Road,” 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 and a grant from the Acadia Foundation. He can be heard on more than 8O recordings on various labels, including Atlantic, Ayler Records, Blue Note, Columbia, ESP-Disk, Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter Records, Prestige, Riverside, and Verve. Henry Grimes now lives and teaches happily in New York City.
So fans, if you're anywhere within reach of a Henry Grimes concert... buy a ticket and be there! Musicians, clubs, schools, festivals: When you're looking for a great teacher, master musician, powerful bandleader, brilliant improviser... please get in touch with Henry Grimes!
Photo Credit
Mark Sheldon, NYC, 2OO8
If only for the Ann Arbor debut of the legendary and recently rediscovered bassist Henry Grimes, the closing night of Edgefest [Oct., 'O5] would be deemed an overwhelming success. As if making up for the lost decades, Grimes, rarely playing at less than an eighth-note pace, gently prodded reedman Andrew Lamb and drummer Newman Taylor Baker through a handful of insistent yet meditative suites that found plenty of room for all three players to shine. That the trio rarely rose above a whisper didn't take away from its intensity; rather, with Grimes furnishing mantra-like foundations both with his fingers and a bow, Baker and Lamb were able to overlay their own invocations, creating an almost chamber-music-like vibe in the intimate venue. Lamb, who switched between tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute, was a worthy melodic foil for Grimes' churning rhythms, while Baker, tastefully restrained, relied on nuance and color in order not to overshadow the leader. Grimes clearly was totally assured with his instrument at his command, rewarding an adoring house that had waited far too long to bask in the virtuosity of one of jazz's truly legendary figures.
- Will Stewart, “Ann Arbor News”
Since his triumphant comeback, Henry Grimes has made up for lost time, recording a fine live CD with drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist David Murray in Finland, and partnering Sun Ra alum saxophonist Marshall Allen for an unlikely duo tour bannered “Spaceship on the Highway.” Saxophonist Fred Anderson and drummer Avreeayl Ra joined the ship when it touched down at Chicago's HotHouse in March in front of a diverse crowd. The free-form summit was dominated by stratospheric eruptions from Allen's unfettered alto, mellifluity from his antiquated EWI, and cosmic poetry, which Anderson backed with bluesy fills and Ra colored with pipings from a cedarwood flute. Nevertheless, the night belonged to Grimes, whose customized space bass boomed beneath his lean, agile fingers. He knew exactly what to do.
- Michael Jackson, “Downbeat,” 7/O5
Henry Grimes is a rare virtuoso without ostentation, an ideal ensemble player of counter-melodies and aggressive rhythms, with a big, true sound... a triumphant return for Grimes and a promise of brilliant music to come.
- John Litweiler, “Chicago Sun-Times,” 3/O5
Tonally resplendent bass-playing ... perpetual-motion lines too fast, fleet and harmonically free-ranging to be easily notated. Grimes emerged a poet of his instrument.
- Howard Reich, “Chicago Tribune,” 3/O5
I was kind of unprepared for how amazing the show would be, having not ever seen Henry and being admittedly skeptical of the story behind his somewhat recent comeback. But he was incredible, as were Marshall [Allen] and Fred Anderson and Avreeayl Ra that night. One of the best shows of the year for me - electrifying.
- Matthew Lurie, “Time Out Chicago,” 'O5
I'm at the first night of the 1Oth Vision Festival ('O5), New York's most forward-looking jazz event... Henry Grimes's quartet features Sun Ra saxophonist Marshall Allen with the science fiction-like electronic glissandi of his EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). Grimes sculpts tones from his bass with a sense of time that continually subdivides the pulse into tributaries of counter-comments. As the energy of the performance reaches a natural cadence, Grimes pulls a funky riff from the air that relights fire-crackers under the band. And with his final solo, Grimes's fingers scurry down the fingerboard in some seemingly abstractly choreographed pattern, except that the musical sense of what he plays communicates instantly.
- Maggie Williams, Editor, “Double Bassist”
Henry Grimes' huge sound and inventiveness are the qualities that made him a bass player sought after by both avant-garde and mainstream musicians•not that these distinctions make any difference for such a deep musician.
- Francesco Martinelli, All About Jazz
Henry Grimes took charge of terra firma, shaking the floorboards with booming notes that segued stealthily from jocular to foreboding -- a sort of four-stringed analogue to James Earl Jones on a wild oratorical ride. Grimes draws heavily from the blues, but doesn't bore his audience with simple retellings of the genre's stock stories. He stains them with his own blood, sweat and tears, making his canvases among the music's most poignant and exhilarating.
- David Sprague, “Variety,” 3/O5
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