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  Photos above & below by Mark 
   Sheldon, NYC & Chicago, 'O6,
  marksheldonphotography.com.

Henry Grimes, NYC, 'O7,
photo by Michael Lowe

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 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 fellow bassist William Parker in December, 'O2 to replace the instrument Henry had given 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, Henry Grimes left New York in a car driven by drummer Clarence Becton and rode to San Francisco with his bass strapped to the car roof to work with Jon Hendricks, Al Jarreau, and others. When these gigs were over, and not finding enough work in San Francisco to survive, Henry took his bass (by then developing cracks from having spent several days baking on top of the car in the desert) to Los Angeles, finding some music work at first while living in a house with pianist Lamont Johnson and a group of musicians working with Lamont and all following Scientology. Henry did not want to join Scientology, and the group eventually closed the house and left town without him. Henry's bass was now no longer playable, so he took it to a repair man, who gave him a high price for the necessary work, and since Henry was unable to pay, the repairman gave him a small sum for the bass instead, Henry apparently believing he'd be able to get it back after a while. Sadly, this turned out not to be the case.

Many years passed with nothing heard from the great Henry Grimes, as he lived in a tiny rented room 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 only a few short weeks with his new bass from William Parker, Henry Grimes emerged from his tiny room to begin playing concerts with Bobby Bradford, Nels and Alex Cline, Joseph Jarman, and others at Billy Higgins’s World Stage, the Howling Monk, the Jazz Bakery, and Schindler House in the Los Angeles area in early 'O3. On his triumphant return to New York City in May, 'O3, Henry Grimes played as special guest on two nights of the six-night Vision Festival, gave live concerts and lengthy interviews on the air daily during a five-day WKCR Henry Grimes Radio Festival, and offered a bass clinic before 5O New York-area bassists who haven't stopped talking about him since.

Henry Grimes moved back to New York in July of 'O3, and since then, in many venues around New York and on tour in the U.S., Canada, Asia, and 19 countries in Europe, he has been making music with master musicians of today such as Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell, Ted Curson, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Dave Douglas, Andrew Lamb, Joe Lovano, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, William Parker, Charli Persip, Marc Ribot, John Tchicai, Oluyemi Thomas, Cecil Taylor, and many more. Since his return, he has taught workshops and master classes at David Gage's shop, City College of New York, Bard College (upstate New York), JazzInstitut Darmstadt (Germany), the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Scuole Brusio and Scuole Poschiavo in Switzerland (Uncool Festival), second-grade students at the Carlucci School in Sintra, Portugal (see some very dear photos and commentary at www.caislisbon.org/about.cfm?subpage=698), and the University of Gloucester at Cheltenham (U.K.), among others. At the age of 7O, he added the violin to his bandstand voice, and at 71 he became a published author for the first time with his book "Signs Along the Road" (released in Cologne and available from the publisher at www.buddysknife.de).

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! He is 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 was named "Musician of the Year" by "All About Jazz / New York" in 'O3; he's received three prestigious Meet the Composer awards; he's twice been nominated for an "L.A. Weekly" Best Jazz Artist Award. Since his return to the music, he has been featured in virtually every major press outlet around the world, including National Public Radio, ABC-TV News, the BBC, "The New York Times," "All About Jazz," "Downbeat," "JazzTimes," "Signal to Noise," "Time Out Chicago," "Time Out New York," "The Village Voice," and hundreds more throughout the world.

In addition, Henry's trio with Andrew Lamb and Newman Taylor Baker was named best jazz trio of the year by "NYPress" in 'O4; Jez Nelson of BBC Radio's "Jazz on 3" chose the Henry Grimes Quartet's performance in Vision Festival 'O5 one of the year's dozen best live broadcasts; the Jazz Journalists Association nominated Henry Grimes for "Acoustic Bassist of the Year" ('O6), the other nominees in this category being Ron Carter, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, Christian McBride, and William Parker; Henry strolled onto the "Downbeat" critics' poll for bassists at #12 in Aug., 'O6 (many of the others having learned from Henry to begin with, as they'll tell you themselves if you ask them); and the Cecil Taylor Trio with Henry Grimes and Pheeroan akLaff was designated a critic's choice for one of the 1O best concerts of the year by "All About Jazz" at the end of 'O6 (thanks, Russ Musto!), and another by the same trio by "Time Out New York" at the end of 'O7 ("Chalk it up to [Cecil Taylor's] reunion with bass heavy Henry Grimes and four-on-the-floor drummer Pheeroan akLaff").

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, eloquent poet, brilliant improviser... please get in touch with Henry Grimes!