Henry Grimes/Roy Campbell duo Live from Blue Lake

[Lazaro Vega]

Wednesday, November 29th from 10 - 11 p.m. est: Henry Grimes & Roy Campbell, Jr. broadcast live from the studios of Blue Lake Public Radio over WBLV FM 90.3/WBLU FM 88.9, Grand Rapids, MI, and stream live over the Internet from www.bluelake.org/radio.html . This performance is underwritten by Family Budget Service of Grand Rapids. Host, Lazaro Vega; engineer, Steve Albert. Blue Lake Public Radio is the broadcast service of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Twin Lake, MI. http://bluelake.ncats.net

For more information about bassist Henry Grimes please see www.henrygrimes.com. Mr. Grimes reports he'll play violin as well as bass on this tour. The biography of trumpeter Roy Campbell takes the reader to his roots in the music of Lee Morgan and Booker Little: www.roycampbellmusic.com/Roybio.html .

Thanks to www.theweathervaneinn.net

* Thursday, November 3Oth: Henry Grimes Trio w/ Roy Campbell, Jr. & Chad Taylor, Bohemian National Home, 3OO9 Tillman St. Detroit, (street map http://tinyurl.com/ts25w), doors at 8 p.m., music from 8:3O, 313-737-66O6, www.myspace.com/bohemiannationalhome, newdetroitsounds@hotmail.com.

* Friday & Saturday, December 1st and 2nd: Henry Grimes Trio w/ Roy Campbell, Jr. & Chad Taylor + special guest Fred Anderson, the new Velvet Lounge, 67 East Cermak Rd. betw. Michigan & Wabash, Chicago, music from 9 p.m., 312-791-9O5O, www.velvetlounge.net, http://tinyurl.com/yhjteo (directions).

Lazaro Vega, Jazz Director

Blue Lake Public Radio

300 E. Crystal Lake Road

Twin Lake MI 49457

www.bluelake.org

radio@bluelake.org

(231) 894-5656

[ghost of miles]

Very cool, Lazaro--thanks for posting. I'll be sure to tune in for this.

[Lazaro Vega]

Was listening last night to Dennis Gonzalez's "Nile River Suite" where Campbell and Grimes have several sections of duo improv. The performance tonight was to have included Chad Taylor on drums, too, who backed out to meet up with the band in Detroit and go on to Chicago. I asked if they might consider using a local drummer and Campbell declined saying he is looking forward to playing duo with Henry. Hearing Roy in such an exposed setting for an hour is rare in these parts. The duo of Marshall Allen and Grimes played on the air here, you may recall, and in that Allen played alto, clarinet and EWI, giving the "duo" a great deal of range. It will be interesting to hear Grimes with "just" trumpet or flugelhorn for the best part of an hour.

[sheldonm]

Looking forward to the shows in Chicago this weekend....anyone besides Sal and Blake going.....please pm me!

Mark~

[ghost of miles]

Listening right now--Henry's on violin!

[ghost of miles]

"Universal Indians," oh yeah! HG back on bass--LV, it's on LOVE CRY. Lovin' the phenomenon of Internet radio...

[Uncle Skid]

Great show! Thanks, Lazaro.

[Lazaro Vega]

Ah, Love Cry is one I've managed to never own.

Thanks for tuning in guys. That was wild. Art for art's sake.

[wigwise]

Is anyone in the Detroit area going to this show tonight? I'd be interested in hearing more about the venue, such as seating (if there is any), the neighborhood it resides in, and the acoustics. I checked out the site on myspace but would like to hear more from someone who has been there.

[ghost of miles]

Saw Dennis Gonzalez' remarks over at Jazzcorner and wanted to echo them--you're a very sharp interviewer, Lazaro. Great questions--smart, insightful, and concise--radio-friendly and engaging. And it was a pleasure to hear Henry on violin. I remember him talking a bit about playing that instrument as a kid when he was here last year.

[Lazaro Vega]

Thanks Ghost,

The rule of thumb for interviews is: if you tuned in to hear music how far can you drive in your car before being fed up with hearing talk? I give that about 5 minutes. So if we do a phone interview that goes on for an hour and a half, as recently with author Peter J. Levinson about his Tommy Dorsey book, then we'll post- produce it into little bits.

Wednesday's interview "highlights" were Roy Campbell's passionate advocacy of the music of Albert Ayler: "He's the alpha and the omega" was how he summarized Ayler's musical world because of the folk element, marches and the blues combining in free improv. Henry's answer to the sort of floundering question about making the "switch" from playing in a more conventional song-form approach and then jumping into the world of Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, and how that's influenced his music today, was perfect: "You're either getting better or getting worse."

Many musicians joined the broadcast. Dennis Gonzalez in Texas, Steve Swell and Tony Malaby in NYC (who've both played Live From Blue Lake), and drummer's Tim Froncek and Randy Marsh on the FM. They are the one's who responded. Presenting free form improv for an hour at the start of the program is a risk (to maintaining a large general audience) that must be taken because, at heart, we need the cultural capital the musicians in our audience provide, and the word of mouth they will spread about artistic integrity in the media we hopefully represent, not to mention the energizing effect such brilliant risk taking music will have on their own efforts, be they song form related or not.

And, of course, the music was a gift. That Grimes appeared in duet with Marshall Allen on Blue Lake in 2005 and now in 2006 with Roy Campbell would make a nice two fer: The Blue Lake Duets.

I'm thinking we will rebroadcast Henry and Roy again next Wednesday at midnight "Out On Blue Lake." It was recorded hi-res and needs to be transferred to CD. We'll see if Steve has had a chance to do that yet.

The next "Live From Blue Lake" will be December 14th at 10 p.m. when Wess Anderson's Trio kicks off a 5 broadcast series (one a month until April) that will emphasize Michigan-based artists (Anderson and bassist Rodney Whitaker are on the faculty at Michigan State University, my alma mater).

Thanks again for listening. Henry Grimes is a living legend .

P.S. Margaret Davis reports the Detroit performance was attended by a very good listening audience, an art for art's sake crowd who came for the music, and that, thankfully, they had no trouble with this snow as they drove into Chicago. That they're in Chi safely and looking forward to two nights at The Velvet Lounge with Fred Anderson joining Roy in the front line and Chad Taylor on drums. We really want to get Fred up hear to play live with Henry in the future. Hopefully in a quartet. Maybe next time. I'm certainly working on it.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Lazaro Vega

[wigwise]

P.S. Margaret Davis reports the Detroit performance was attended by a very good listening audience, an art for art's sake crowd who came for the music, and that, thankfully, they had no trouble with this snow as they drove into Chicago.

I was there last night and stayed for the first set (which lasted about an hour). The music was great. Henry was in good form, playing his violin during various improvised sections, but mostly stuck to his bass. Roy was on fire, playing four different instruments (trumpet, flugel horn, pocket trumpet and flute), as was Chad, who laid down a continuously energetic beat throughout the set. The Bohemian National House is located in this 90- year-old building that looked abandoned from the exterior, situated in this interesting neighborhood a couple of blocks form I-96.

All things considered, it was a good time. I definitely enjoyed the music and the atmosphere. If I had to guess. I would say there were somewhere between 30-50 people in attendance. I'm glad to hear that they made it to Chicago without incident.

[sheldonm]

P.S. Margaret Davis reports the Detroit performance was attended by a very good listening audience, an art for art's sake crowd who came for the music, and that, thankfully, they had no trouble with this snow as they drove into Chicago.

I was there last night and stayed for the first set (which lasted about an hour). The music was great. Henry was in good form, playing his violin during various improvised sections, but mostly stuck to his bass. Roy was on fire, playing four different instruments (trumpet, flugel horn, pocket trumpet and flute), as was Chad, who laid down a continuously energetic beat throughout the set. The Bohemian National House is located in this 90- year-old building that looked abandoned from the exterior, situated in this interesting neighborhood a couple of blocks form I-96.

All things considered, it was a good time. I definitely enjoyed the music and the atmosphere. If I had to guess. I would say there were somewhere between 30-50 people in attendance. I'm glad to hear that they made it to Chicago without incident.

The weather in Chicago was a little over stated. I came from Indy on the day of the snow and didn't encounter a flake until I was 10 miles from the city. Even passing through the city from south to north, there was no snow on the roads and a few inches on the median.....it was cold though....Sunday the wind chill was about 5 degrees (non-windchill about 15).

I was present for four sets and thought the final show on Saturday night was the best (for me). Henry was great on the violin and once the amp issues were fixed, was killing on the bass as well. Roy and Chad were amazing and Fred was Fred if you know what I mean!!! Packed house both nights with the Saturday shows overflowing!!! Youngsters sitting on the floor with their mouths hanging open....not sure what they were seeing. I'll post a few photos in the next couple days.

Also went to the Sun Ra exhibit with Henry, Margaret, Hilda (friend and driver) and Roy....very cool stuff!!! Ran into Michael Weiss at the exhibit as well.

m~