Henry Grimes

Biography

Henry Alonzo Grimes was born in Philadelphia to parents who had played music when they were younger. He started on violin at twelve, then moved through tuba, English horn, and percussion before settling on double bass at Mastbaum Technical High School. After studying at Juilliard, he built a name as a flexible bassist by the mid-1950s. He worked with a wide range of musicians, including Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Anita O’Day, and Benny Goodman.

Charles Mingus picked him as the second bassist when trying out that setup. At the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, captured in the film Jazz on a Summer’s Day, the 22-year-old Grimes played with six different groups that weekend—Benny Goodman, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, and Tony Scott—even though his name wasn’t in the program. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther still singled him out as a key player. Drawn to free jazz, Grimes performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler.

In 1966, he led a trio on the album The Call for ESP-Disk, with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price, a record that reflects his work at the time.

Disappearance and return

In the late 1960s, Grimes's 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. 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 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 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, 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 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.

Following his return in 2003, Grimes played at many venues around New York City and on tour in the United States, Canada, and 30 countries in Europe, the Far East, and Brazil, often working as a leader, 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), Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor (with whom Grimes resumed playing in October, 2006 after 40 years), John Tchicai, and many others.

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. 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 City College of New York, Berklee College of Music, Hamilton College, New England Conservatory, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, Humber College, and more.

He released or played on a dozen new recordings, made his professional debut on a second instrument (the violin) at Cecil Taylor's side at Lincoln Center at the age of 70, and had been creating illustrations to accompany his new recordings and publications. Grimes 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.

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.

Death

Henry Grimes died on April 15, 2020, at the age of 84 from complications of COVID-19. His wife, Margaret Davis-Grimes confirmed the date of his death and its cause to the Jazz Foundation of America.