NEWS: Sunday, Nov. 7th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, Tampere Jazz Happening, Old Customs House Hall, Tullikamarinaukio 2, 331OO Tampere, Finland, 5:3O p.m., 358- 3-3146-6751, www.tampere.fi/festival/music, [email protected] (also playing in this festival, Nov. 4-7, are Fred Anderson, Ravi Coltrane, Sonny Simmons, the Skatalites, & many more);
NEWS: Monday, Nov. 8th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, w/ special guest Leo Lindberg, Nefertiti Club, Hvitfeldtspaltsen 6, Goteborg [Gothenburg], Sweden, 46-31-711 1533, www.nefertiti.se, [email protected];
NEWS: Tuesday, Nov. 9th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, Jazzclub Fasching, Kungsgaten 63, Stockholm, Sweden, two sets from 8 p.m., 46-O8-534 829 64, www.fasching.se, [email protected];
NEWS: Thursday, Nov. 11th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Mondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, Sala Comunale San Lussorio, Borore, NU, Sardinia, 9:3O p.m., 39-0785-86023, [email protected], [email protected];
NEWS: Saturday, Nov. 13th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & John Betsch, Kunstencentrum Belgie, Burgemeester Bollenstraat 54-56+, Hasselt, Belgium, 1O:3O p.m., 32-O11-22 41 61, www.kunstencentrumbelgie.com, www.kunstencentrumbelgie.com/programma/concert/GRIMES.htm, www.limburg.be/motivesforjazz/html/concertkalender.html, [email protected] (also playing: The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden + Chris Corsano & Paul Flaherty)!
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COMING SOON: THE HENRY GRIMES TRIO featuring DAVID MURRAY & HAMID DRAKE LIVE AT KERAVA, ON AYLER RECORDS (www.ayler.com)!!
ALSO COMING SOON: MARC RIBOT's SPIRITUAL UNITY QUARTET, w/ ROY CAMPBELL, JR., CHAD TAYLOR, and featuring HENRY GRIMES, playing all Albert Ayler music on PI RECORDINGS (www.pirecordings.com)!!
STILL AVAILABLE: a few copies of a special limited-edition private issue of the Henry Grimes solo bass concert entitled “More Call" played at WKCR-FM, New York on June 1st, 'O3, with individually hand-painted CD cover designs by Henry Grimes.
Please visit www.HenryGrimes.com for further details, and please contact me for bookings, photos, interviews, press seats, CD's, or more information. Warm wishes, Margaret Davis (Henry Grimes's partner & manager), www.HenryGrimes.com, www.jazznewyork.org, [email protected], Voicemail (212) 841-O899.
PLEASE NOTE: There will be no recording or filming at any Henry Grimes concert without written permission in advance.
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As almost everyone probably knows by now, master contrabassist HENRY GRIMES, missing from the music world since the late '6O's, has made an unprecedented comeback after receiving the gift of a bass (a green one called Olive Oil!) from William Parker to replace the instrument Henry had been forced to give up some 3O years earlier. Between the mid-'5O's and the mid-'6O's, the Juilliard-educated Henry Grimes played brilliantly on some 5O albums with an enormous range of musicians, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus!), Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Rev. Frank Wright, and many more. And then one day in 1968, for reasons largely related to troubles in the music world at the time, Henry Grimes left. Many years passed with nothing heard from him, as he lived in a single-room occupancy hotel in downtown Los Angeles and sustained himself with survival work not related to music (construction, maintenance, janitorial, etc.), writing many handwritten books of poetry, philosophy, and metaphysics, and studying yoga. Yet after a very short while with his new bass, Henry Grimes emerged from his tiny room to begin playing concerts with Bobby Bradford, Nels and Alex Cline, Joseph Jarman, and others around L.A. Mr. Grimes moved back to New York City in July of 'O3, and in many venues around New York and on extensive tours in Europe and Canada, he has been making music with Fred Anderson, Newman Taylor Baker, Gary Bartz, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Jr., Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Dave Douglas, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Edward “Kidd" Jordan, Andrew Lamb, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, William Parker, Charli Persip, Marc Ribot, Alan Silva, Sirone, and many more. To the astonishment and joy of all, Henry Grimes is playing at the very height of his artistic powers (or indeed anyone's!), just as though he had never stopped at all. Still in his sixties, he's healthy and strong, and his gentle, humble bearing and courageous life story have inspired all those privileged to know him, hear him, play music with him. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant, was designated Musician of the Year by “All About Jazz"/ New York at the end of 'O3, was nominated for Jazz Artist of the Year by “L.A. Weekly" in both 'O3 and 'O4, and his trio with Andrew Lamb and Newman Taylor Baker was recently named best jazz trio by “NYPress" in its “Best of Manhattan," 'O4 issue. For more information: www.HenryGrimes.com, [email protected].
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Here are brief biographies for the other members of the quartet:
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JEMEEL MOONDOC was born in Chicago in 1946, as a child studied piano and clarinet, picked up the alto saxophone at 16, and stayed with it. He studied with Ran Blake at New England Conservatory during the day while playing at night with the James Tatum Blues Band. After hearing Cecil Taylor's “Unit Structures" (on which Henry Grimes was one of the bassists, by the way), Jemeel Moondoc sought out Mr. Taylor and spent several years studying with him and playing in his student bands. Moving to New York City in '76, Mr. Moondoc formed Ensemble Muntu, which included Roy Campbell, Jr., William Parker, and Rashid Bakr; one of the great legendary loft-era bands, Muntu recorded five albums and toured extensively. In the '8O's Jemeel Moondoc made a series of albums for Soul Note (including “Judy's Bounce" with Fred Hopkins and Ed Blackwell), and he organized the Jus' Grew Orchestra, a large ensemble with regular gigs at the Neither/ Nor on the lower East Days. These days, Jemeel Moondoc's music is in the midst of a full-blown renaissance. The Eremite label has released several new Jemeel Moondoc recordings in recent years, essentially doubling his extant discography. Eremite describes him as “a spectral but intensely felt presence on the New York City music scene for a quarter-century; his jagged, antic lines and blues-drenched, unorthodox tonalities have made him one of the more distinctive and emotionally expressive improvisers active in the music." For more information:.
KHAN JAMAL was born in Florida in 1946 and has been playing the vibraphone and marimbas in the Philadelphia and New York area, as well as touring extensively in Europe, for going on four decades. Having studied at Granoff School of Music and Combs College, as well as with Philadelphia vibraphonist Bill Lewis, he began an association with the renowned improvisational drummer Sunny Murray back in the 6O's that has lasted to this day. His appetite for all ranges of music has made him especially well known among fellow artists, who acknowledge his skill and musical leadership. Wrote Daniel Piotrowski in “Philadelphia Weekly," “The artist who probably deserves larger recognition than almost anyone is vibraphonist Khan Jamal. His wondrous control of tone, rhythm and melody has earned him admiration from fellow musicians, as well as an international following -- but only among cognoscenti. Having performed with everyone from Grover Washington to Sun Ra, Khan Jamal's adaptability is unmatched, but his reputation as a top-notch improviser has come from his work with musicians like David Murray, Sunny Murray, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Billy Bang." For more information:.
HAMID DRAKE (multiple percussion drum kit, frame drum, tabla, voice) was born in 1955 in Monroe, Louisiana and raised in Illinois. He started playing with local rock and R&B bands and eventually came to the attention of A.A.C.M. master Fred Anderson, through whose workshops young Hamid first got to know and work with many other A.A.C.M. masters around Chicago. Hamid's flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in the roots of the music drew other like-minded musicians together into a performance and educational collective named the Mandingo Griot Society, combining traditional African music and narrative with distinctly American influences. Hamid Drake and fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph traveled with Don Cherry to Europe, exploring the interior landscape of percussion while working nonstop to share deeply in Don's grasp of music's spiritual powers. Other musicians Hamid cites as influences are Ed Blackwell, Philly Joe Jones, and Jo Jones, and it was through the latter's broad-based concepts that Hamid was impelled to explore earlier forms of drumming before the advent of free jazz. Now touring and recording all over the world and in constant demand, Hamid Drake has provided rhythmic support to forward-thinking musicians such as Peter Br
NEWS: Monday, Nov. 8th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, w/ special guest Leo Lindberg, Nefertiti Club, Hvitfeldtspaltsen 6, Goteborg [Gothenburg], Sweden, 46-31-711 1533, www.nefertiti.se, [email protected];
NEWS: Tuesday, Nov. 9th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, Jazzclub Fasching, Kungsgaten 63, Stockholm, Sweden, two sets from 8 p.m., 46-O8-534 829 64, www.fasching.se, [email protected];
NEWS: Thursday, Nov. 11th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Mondoc, Khan Jamal, & Hamid Drake, Sala Comunale San Lussorio, Borore, NU, Sardinia, 9:3O p.m., 39-0785-86023, [email protected], [email protected];
NEWS: Saturday, Nov. 13th: Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Jemeel Moondoc, Khan Jamal, & John Betsch, Kunstencentrum Belgie, Burgemeester Bollenstraat 54-56+, Hasselt, Belgium, 1O:3O p.m., 32-O11-22 41 61, www.kunstencentrumbelgie.com, www.kunstencentrumbelgie.com/programma/concert/GRIMES.htm, www.limburg.be/motivesforjazz/html/concertkalender.html, [email protected] (also playing: The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden + Chris Corsano & Paul Flaherty)!
<< >> << >>< >>< >>< <> >
COMING SOON: THE HENRY GRIMES TRIO featuring DAVID MURRAY & HAMID DRAKE LIVE AT KERAVA, ON AYLER RECORDS (www.ayler.com)!!
ALSO COMING SOON: MARC RIBOT's SPIRITUAL UNITY QUARTET, w/ ROY CAMPBELL, JR., CHAD TAYLOR, and featuring HENRY GRIMES, playing all Albert Ayler music on PI RECORDINGS (www.pirecordings.com)!!
STILL AVAILABLE: a few copies of a special limited-edition private issue of the Henry Grimes solo bass concert entitled “More Call" played at WKCR-FM, New York on June 1st, 'O3, with individually hand-painted CD cover designs by Henry Grimes.
Please visit www.HenryGrimes.com for further details, and please contact me for bookings, photos, interviews, press seats, CD's, or more information. Warm wishes, Margaret Davis (Henry Grimes's partner & manager), www.HenryGrimes.com, www.jazznewyork.org, [email protected], Voicemail (212) 841-O899.
PLEASE NOTE: There will be no recording or filming at any Henry Grimes concert without written permission in advance.
<< >> << >> << >> << >>< <> >
As almost everyone probably knows by now, master contrabassist HENRY GRIMES, missing from the music world since the late '6O's, has made an unprecedented comeback after receiving the gift of a bass (a green one called Olive Oil!) from William Parker to replace the instrument Henry had been forced to give up some 3O years earlier. Between the mid-'5O's and the mid-'6O's, the Juilliard-educated Henry Grimes played brilliantly on some 5O albums with an enormous range of musicians, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus!), Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Rev. Frank Wright, and many more. And then one day in 1968, for reasons largely related to troubles in the music world at the time, Henry Grimes left. Many years passed with nothing heard from him, as he lived in a single-room occupancy hotel in downtown Los Angeles and sustained himself with survival work not related to music (construction, maintenance, janitorial, etc.), writing many handwritten books of poetry, philosophy, and metaphysics, and studying yoga. Yet after a very short while with his new bass, Henry Grimes emerged from his tiny room to begin playing concerts with Bobby Bradford, Nels and Alex Cline, Joseph Jarman, and others around L.A. Mr. Grimes moved back to New York City in July of 'O3, and in many venues around New York and on extensive tours in Europe and Canada, he has been making music with Fred Anderson, Newman Taylor Baker, Gary Bartz, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Jr., Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Dave Douglas, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Edward “Kidd" Jordan, Andrew Lamb, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, William Parker, Charli Persip, Marc Ribot, Alan Silva, Sirone, and many more. To the astonishment and joy of all, Henry Grimes is playing at the very height of his artistic powers (or indeed anyone's!), just as though he had never stopped at all. Still in his sixties, he's healthy and strong, and his gentle, humble bearing and courageous life story have inspired all those privileged to know him, hear him, play music with him. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant, was designated Musician of the Year by “All About Jazz"/ New York at the end of 'O3, was nominated for Jazz Artist of the Year by “L.A. Weekly" in both 'O3 and 'O4, and his trio with Andrew Lamb and Newman Taylor Baker was recently named best jazz trio by “NYPress" in its “Best of Manhattan," 'O4 issue. For more information: www.HenryGrimes.com, [email protected].
<< >> << >> < >>< < >>< < > >
Here are brief biographies for the other members of the quartet:
<< >> << >>< < >>< <> < < >>
JEMEEL MOONDOC was born in Chicago in 1946, as a child studied piano and clarinet, picked up the alto saxophone at 16, and stayed with it. He studied with Ran Blake at New England Conservatory during the day while playing at night with the James Tatum Blues Band. After hearing Cecil Taylor's “Unit Structures" (on which Henry Grimes was one of the bassists, by the way), Jemeel Moondoc sought out Mr. Taylor and spent several years studying with him and playing in his student bands. Moving to New York City in '76, Mr. Moondoc formed Ensemble Muntu, which included Roy Campbell, Jr., William Parker, and Rashid Bakr; one of the great legendary loft-era bands, Muntu recorded five albums and toured extensively. In the '8O's Jemeel Moondoc made a series of albums for Soul Note (including “Judy's Bounce" with Fred Hopkins and Ed Blackwell), and he organized the Jus' Grew Orchestra, a large ensemble with regular gigs at the Neither/ Nor on the lower East Days. These days, Jemeel Moondoc's music is in the midst of a full-blown renaissance. The Eremite label has released several new Jemeel Moondoc recordings in recent years, essentially doubling his extant discography. Eremite describes him as “a spectral but intensely felt presence on the New York City music scene for a quarter-century; his jagged, antic lines and blues-drenched, unorthodox tonalities have made him one of the more distinctive and emotionally expressive improvisers active in the music." For more information:
KHAN JAMAL was born in Florida in 1946 and has been playing the vibraphone and marimbas in the Philadelphia and New York area, as well as touring extensively in Europe, for going on four decades. Having studied at Granoff School of Music and Combs College, as well as with Philadelphia vibraphonist Bill Lewis, he began an association with the renowned improvisational drummer Sunny Murray back in the 6O's that has lasted to this day. His appetite for all ranges of music has made him especially well known among fellow artists, who acknowledge his skill and musical leadership. Wrote Daniel Piotrowski in “Philadelphia Weekly," “The artist who probably deserves larger recognition than almost anyone is vibraphonist Khan Jamal. His wondrous control of tone, rhythm and melody has earned him admiration from fellow musicians, as well as an international following -- but only among cognoscenti. Having performed with everyone from Grover Washington to Sun Ra, Khan Jamal's adaptability is unmatched, but his reputation as a top-notch improviser has come from his work with musicians like David Murray, Sunny Murray, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Billy Bang." For more information:
HAMID DRAKE (multiple percussion drum kit, frame drum, tabla, voice) was born in 1955 in Monroe, Louisiana and raised in Illinois. He started playing with local rock and R&B bands and eventually came to the attention of A.A.C.M. master Fred Anderson, through whose workshops young Hamid first got to know and work with many other A.A.C.M. masters around Chicago. Hamid's flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in the roots of the music drew other like-minded musicians together into a performance and educational collective named the Mandingo Griot Society, combining traditional African music and narrative with distinctly American influences. Hamid Drake and fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph traveled with Don Cherry to Europe, exploring the interior landscape of percussion while working nonstop to share deeply in Don's grasp of music's spiritual powers. Other musicians Hamid cites as influences are Ed Blackwell, Philly Joe Jones, and Jo Jones, and it was through the latter's broad-based concepts that Hamid was impelled to explore earlier forms of drumming before the advent of free jazz. Now touring and recording all over the world and in constant demand, Hamid Drake has provided rhythmic support to forward-thinking musicians such as Peter Br
For more information contact All About Jazz.
