Grimes Times!! Grimes Times!! Jan., 'O6

Thursday, Jan. 5th: Juini Booth, solo bass, 8 p.m; Marc Ribot's Spiritual Unity Quartet w/ Roy Campbell, Jr. & Chad Taylor & featuring HENRY GRIMES, 1O p.m., the Stone, northwest corner of Ave. C & 2nd St., New York City (no phone), www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php, F or V train to 2nd Ave. or 14th St. buses traveling east on 14th St. and south to Houston St.

(For a high-resolution photo of this group, please see henrygrimes.com/SpiritualUnity_byDominikHuber2004_HiRes.jpg; for more information on the group's 'O5 CD, please see pirecordings.com/pi15/index.html.)

Saturday, Jan. 14th: Jemeel Moondoc w/ Connie Crothers & HENRY GRIMES, the Stone (see above), 8 & 1O p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 21st: HENRY GRIMES & Roswell Rudd, the Stone (see above), 8 & 1O p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 22nd: Marc Ribot's Spiritual Unity (see Jan. 5th, above), Winter Jazzfest, showcases for Association of Performing Arts Presenters at the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St. betw. Church St. & Broadway 5 blocks below Canal, New York City, 212-219-3OO6, www.knittingfactory.com, 15 groups playing from 6 p.m. (Dave Burrell/ Vijay Iyer/ John Medeski/ Pyeng Threadgill, & more), #1 train to Franklin St. or #6 to Canal St. or any other trains that stop at Canal St.

Master bassist 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 in December, 'O2 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 Philadelphia-born, 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, for reasons largely related to troubles in the music world at the time, he disappeared. Many years passed with nothing heard from him, yet after a short while with his new bass, he emerged to begin playing music again. These days, he lives, works, and teaches in New York City and has been working almost exclusively as a leader with Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Jr., Daniel Carter, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Edward “Kidd" Jordan, Joe Lovano, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, Jemeel Moondoc, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, and many more. Since 2OO3, Henry has played and toured extensively in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey) as well as Canada and the U.S. To the astonishment and joy of all, he's playing at the very height of his artistic powers (or indeed anyone's), just as though he'd never stopped at all! In the past two years, he's taught workshops and master classes at City College of New York, at Edgefest in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and at JazzInstitut Darmstadt, among others; he was named “Musician of the Year" by “All About Jazz / New York" at the end of 'O3; he received prestigious Meet the Composer awards in 'O3 and 'O5; he has been twice nominated for an “L.A. Weekly" Best Jazz Artist Award ('O3 & 'O4); and he was most recently featured in “Downbeat" (July, 'O5), “The Village Voice" (July), “Signal to Noise" (summer issue), “JazzTimes" (August), “Time Out New York" (September), and “Jazz Improv" (November). He's still 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.

“Henry 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," 'O5

“If you haven't heard the fantastic news about Henry Grimes' return to the jazz world, I don't know what stone you've been sleeping under! He's been the talk of the town, and I don't just mean New York or Los Angeles, but the jazz community at large has been celebrating his recent rediscovery after not even having played for a good three decades. He's showed us all that he is back, and boy is he ever! His arco and pizzicato playing is like a resurrection for bass players the world over.... Welcome back, Mr. Grimes!" -- Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor, “All About Jazz"/ New York.

For further information: www.HenryGrimes.com, [email protected].

ROY CAMPBELL, JR. (trumpets, flute, percussion, voice, composer, arranger, bandleader) was born in Los Angeles and grew up in New York. Initially inspired by his trumpeter father, Roy's musical journey began with piano lessons; by the time he entered high school, he was also playing flute, recorder, and violin, and he took up trumpet in his senior year of high school. As a teen, he was taught by trumpeters Kenny Dorham, Howard McGhee, Lee Morgan, and Joe Newman, and he learned music theory, arranging, and composition from Yusef Lateef. By the age of 2O, Roy was leading his own band and was in great demand as a side man and studio musician as well. Joining Jemeel Moondoc's Ensemble Muntu in 1978 led to many dates and tours abroad, allowing Roy to develop an international following. He lived in the Netherlands from 199O to '92, working as a free-lance musician and lecturer, holding conservatory workshops, leading several European big bands, and composing commissioned pieces. Back in the States, Roy expanded into writing and arranging music for himself and others, scoring documentaries, and composing and arranging for off-Broadway productions. His TV credits include appearances on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, UPN, and cable networks. He has acted in independent films and plays, he often provides musical accompaniment for dancers and poets, and he has been known to contribute to those art forms himself. As a bandleader, he has long maintained several stellar working units, including Downtown Horns, Other Dimensions in Music, the Pyramid Trio, Shades and Colors of Trane, and Tazz. Roy's music embraces a wide range of roots and styles, including jazz, funk, rock, R&B, hip-hop, rap, classical, reggae, and more. A few of today's leading innovators Roy has worked with include: Rashied Ali, Billy Bang, Evelyn Blakey, Hamid Drake, Carlos Garnett, Henry Grimes, Eddie Harris, Hannibal (Marvin Peterson) Lokumb, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Joe McPhee, Jemeel Moondoc, David Murray, Sunny Murray, William Parker, Sun Ra, Woody Shaw, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, Wilbur Ware, Rev. Frank Wright, and John Zorn. For further information: www.RoyCampbellMusic.com.

CONNIE CROTHERS (pianist, composer) was born in Palo Alto, California and at the age of nine began composing music and taking piano lessons, performing frequently in concerts and recitals as she grew up. After studying music at UCLA / Berkeley, she moved to New York City in '62 to study with Lennie Tristano, who presented her in private concerts in his home and in solos at Carnegie Recital Hall in '73 and '77- '79. Connie and Lenny Popkin co-produced the Lennie Tristano memorial concert held in Town Hall in New York City in 1979. In 1980 she co-led an engagement with Warne Marsh at the Village Vanguard and that year also played solo at the Berlin Jazztage and with composer and percussionist Max Roach. In 1983 she co-led an engagement with Max Roach, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Connie played solo in 1984 at Cooper Union in New York City, as part of the New Music America festival in Washington D.C. in 1983, and in 1986 at the DuMaurier International Jazz Festival in Toronto. In 1987, working with her associates, she reorganized the New Artists label as a cooperative record company dedicated to improvised original music. In 1989 she played solo in the Jazz Middleheim festival in Belgium. Connie formed a quartet with co-leader Lenny Popkin featuring Cameron Brown and Carol Tristano and Cameron Brown, and this quartet performed at the Blue Note, Sweet Basil and Birdland in New York City, toured Europe and Canada, and in the early '9O's were presented at the duMaurier Festival in Toronto, de Werf in Bruges, and de Singel in Antwerp, also appearing in the Spoleto Festival in 1995 and 1996. That year Marion McPartland featured Connie on her radio series “Piano Jazz" on National Public Radio. Connie performed solo at The Jazz School in Berkeley, California in 1998 and played duets with Max Roach in Bologna, Italy in 2000. She appeared at Birdland in New York City when the club featured the record label in April through June of 2OOO, and she co-led a quintet with Jemeel Moondoc in the Vision Festival of 'O3. These days, when home, Connie Crothers teaches improvisation at her New York studio. For further information: http://jazzwomen.org/Detail.CFM?womeninjazz__ID=1592.

JEMEEL MOONDOC (composer, saxophonist, bandleader, teacher) was born in Chicago, began studying piano and clarinet at age ten, and played in the concert band while studying architecture at Chicago Vocational High School. After hearing the music of Cecil Taylor and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Jemeel began to play the alto saxophone with Cecil Taylor's Black Music Ensemble at the U. of Wisconsin / Madison and later at Antioch College, where he became a featured soloist. His tenure with Cecil Taylor lasted two years, endowing Jemeel with the necessary experience to play in the New York City jazz world. After arriving in New York City in 1972, he started Ensemble Muntu, a quintet whose first date was at Sam Rivers' Studio Rivbea. One of the great bands of the loft era, Muntu recorded five albums, and wide touring sowed seeds for the revitalization of American jazz. He led solo sessions for labels such as Soul Note and Cadence through the early '8O's, also making a series of recordings for Soul Note Records and leading his big band, The Jus Grew Orchestra, for a number of memorable seasons on the Lower East Side. But financial difficulties forced him to break up his large ensemble and essentially retire from music for over a decade when he found himself a single father working to finish his studies in architecture. Yet this did nothing to dampen his musical fires, and his musical career was revived in the mid-'9O's when the Eremite label coaxed him into signing a deal that allowed him great creative freedom. In '96, Jemeel recorded his first albums in 11 years, followed by a string of brilliant recordings. He revived his Jus Grew Orchestra as a 1O-piece group and performed a set of Massachusetts concerts documented on 'O1's “Spirit House"; also released that year was “Revolt of the Negro Lawn Jockeys," a quintet performance from the 'OO Vision Festival that was acclaimed as perhaps his finest album to date. Since then he has led several groups and has toured Europe with the Henry Grimes Quintet. For further information: www.moondoc.com.

MARC RIBOT (guitarist, bandleader, composer, arranger) was born in Newark and as a teen played guitar in various garage bands while studying with his mentor, Haitian classical guitarist and composer Frantz Casseus. In 1978 Marc crossed the river to New York City, where he served as sideman for such musicians as jazz organist Jack McDuff and legendary soul shouter Wilson Pickett. Marc began his five-year stint as a member of the Lounge Lizards (John Lurie's innovative and influential downtown jazz ensemble) in 1984. At the time, Marc's playing, which blended elements of classic blues guitar with the ironic “no wave" Knitting Factory aesthetic, caught the ear of a number of artists who were also interested in amalgamating and disrupting disparate musical traditions, resulting in concerts and/ or recordings with “T-Bone" Burnett, Don Byron, Chocolate Genius, Anthony Coleman, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, Bill Frisell, the Jazz Passengers, Arto Lindsay, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Tom Waits, and John Zorn, to name a few. Marc Ribot has also composed and recorded his own brand of downtown soul music with his bands the Rootless Cosmopolitans and Shrek. In 1998 Atlantic Records released the critically acclaimed “Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos" featuring Ribot's beautifully slanted interpretations of material by the great Cuban songwriter Arsenio Rodriguez. Composer Stewart Wallace wrote an electric guitar concerto with orchestra for Marc, and the piece was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. in 'O4. Recently Marc has written several musical scores as he continues to write, perform, and collaborate, currently working with a new sonically dense rock band called the Marc Ribot Mystery Trio, also producing a record of material by his Haitian mentor Frantz Casseus, and touring and recording with his Spiritual Unity Quartet, which is dedicated to the music, spirit, and inspiration of Albert Ayler. For further information: www.marcribot.com.

ROSWELL RUDD (trombonist, composer, bandleader, arranger), who just turned 70!, is proud to come out of the tradition of Jack Teagarden, Kid Ory, J.J. Johnson, and Joseph Nanton. Known for his work with groundbreaking groups and musicians such as Herbie Nichols, the New York Art Quartet, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Carla Bley, and Steve Lacy, his trailblazing on the trombone has influenced an entire generation of trombonists, who hear his extroverted gut-bucket stylings as the modern incarnation of the New Orleans style, along with an equal passionate lyricism in the tradition of American folk songs and ballads. Roswell Rudd has received international recognition as a performer and for his compositions and arrangements, ranging from large-scale music dramas to instrumental jazz suites. His jazz operas “Blues for Planet Earth" and “Gold Rush" have achieved cult status since they were played in the 1960's. In 2OOO, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition; in 'O3, 'O4, and 'O5 he was voted Trombonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Meanwhile, for a period of three decades, Roswell Rudd assisted Alan Lomax with his world song-style project, and the wealth of information on the music of this planet inspired Roswell to collaborate beyond the periphery of Western music. One result is MALIcool (Universal/Sunnyside), recorded in Bamako, Mali in 2OO1 with both Malian and American musicians; another is his most recent collaboration, Roswell Rudd and the Mongolian Buryat Band, released on Sunnyside in the fall of 2OO5. In 2OO4 he brought his Trombone Shout Band into the fourth Festival in the Desert in Essakane, Timbuctou, Mali. He co-leads an ensemble with Archie Shepp and tours with MALIcool, the Mongolian Buryat Band, and the Trombone Shout Band. Roswell Rudd is one of the giants, and his active playing force and larger-than-life individualism are welcomed and honored everywhere. For further information: www.roswellrudd.com.

CHAD TAYLOR (drums, vibraphone, composer) has played professionally in Chicago since he was 14 years old. In 1991, he moved to New York and played with Lou Donaldson, Leon Parker, Junior Mance, and Mark Turner, helped form the free-improvisational group the Life Ensemble in 1993, & returned home in 1996 to help develop the Chicago Underground Orchestra. Since then he has also played with Fred Anderson, Derek Bailey, David Boykin, Bobby Bradford, Peter Brotzmann, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Eugene Chadbourne, Cooper-Moore, Ernest Dawkins, Malachi Favors, Henry Grimes, Leroy Jenkins, Joe Maneri, Rob Mazurek, Joe McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell, Jemeel Moondoc, Marc Ribot, Steve Swell, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, and many other extraordinary improvisers. He is also part of Chicago's post-rock scene, recording / playing with Tortoise, Isotope 217, StereoLab, Brokeback, Mouse on Mars, Sam Prekop, and Jim O'Rourke. He is currently a member of the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, Quartet & Orchestra. Chad leads his own group called Active Ingredients, whose 'Titration' was released on Delmark Records. For further information: www.moderndrummer.com/updatefull/200001554.

EXCITING ADVANCE NEWS!!: Saturday, Feb. 25 at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: Henry Grimes workshop in Bard Hall at 4 p.m; Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Marilyn Crispell & Tani Tabbal + special guest Roswell Rudd, concert in Olin Auditorium at 8 p.m., 845-876-7666, -7425 (Bard Center), 8OO-227-3265, www.bard.edu/jazzatbard, [email protected], [email protected].

For Henry Grimes bookings, interviews, press seats, high-res photos, CD's, etc:

Margaret Davis
Henry Grimes's partner (and manager)
www.HenryGrimes.com
[email protected]
Voicemail 212-841-O899

(Please note: There will be no recording or filming at any concert where Henry Grimes is playing without written permission in advance. Thanks for your understanding and respect.)