Henry Grimes Story in Variety!

[medjuck]

Came across the following on the Variety website:

How much power can an email have?

Quite a bit, especially when it affects the livelihood of a jazz musician, Henry Grimes and his wife Margaret Davis Grimes are learning. The music community, and it probably extends to all arts, want to see the overlooked and undercompensated given a fair shake and treated properly. We saw it play out internationally with John Lee Hooker and dozens of other musicians on smaller scales.

The re-emergence of the great jazz bassist Henry Grimes, 70, is nothing short of miraculous. In the last five years, this legend of 1960s free jazz has gone from living in a one-room apartment in Los Angeles far removed from music to an in-demand player based in New York. His return, sprung from the gift of a double bass from William Parker, has led to a string of activity, much of it on the East Coast and in Europe. He has been performing with Marc Ribot, Dave Douglas, Rosewell Rudd and others.

What Devendra Banhart did for Vashti Bunyan, William Parker has done for Henry Grimes, who has a record being released this week, “Going to the Ritual” on Porter Records.

Grimes' wife sent out an email alerting fans to two upcoming gigs with the Symphony for Improvisers Double Quartet (Dave Douglas w/ J.D. Allen, Henry Grimes, and Andrew Cyrille; and Roy Campbell, Jr. w/ Mixashawn, Hilliard Greene, and Hamid Drake) performing Aug. 24 in Saalfelden, Austria, and Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy,on Aug. 28.

She included a PS mentioning the re-release of "The Call," noting that Grimes was paid $10 for the recording and has not received a cent from Stollman or ESP since. Henry, she wrote, is owed 40 years of royalties. She's hoping attorneys who are fans will help her with her cause and that fans, she wrote, "if you feel you must buy this re-release, please contact musicmargaret@earthlink.net to arrange to send Henry Grimes some money for your purchase."

ESP has sprung into action. The label's general manager, Tom Abbs, contacted Ms. Grimes, telling her Henry would receive everything he is owed.

They will have to move quickly to remove the scars of the last 40 years, but a few checks to Grimes and other musicians from Stollman would go a long way toward patching up the label's problematic past.

"Just in case there is actually something new under the sun, I'm discussing things with Tom at ESP now, and this may or may not lead to something good for Henry," she writes.

"The Call" was recorded by ESP and released in 1965. It is a beauty, a trio recording rich with a multitude of colors and moods. Listen to it and you want more, especially if your tastes run toward Albert Ayler or Don Cherry, two other artists who recorded for ESP.

Grimes is actively looking for bookings and residencies. He has continued to lead several of his own groups, and has played, toured, and/or recorded with Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell, Ted Curson, Andrew Cyrille, David Murray, Cecil Taylor and others.

In addition, he has published a book of his poetry, "Signs Along the Road."

[JSngry]

BOFFO BASSIST BACK FROM BEYOND, PUTS "THE CALL" IN FOR BACKDUE BUCKS FROM STALLING STOLLMAN!!!

Edited July 18, 2008 by JSngry

[Chuck Nessa]

[JSngry]

It only seems proper...

[Chuck Nessa]

[Dan Gould]

It only seems proper...

Yeah but it doesn't exactly flow like

STIX NIX HICKS FLICK

[AllenLowe]

it would be interesting to see the actual original contracts; from what I've been told, Stollman was very open about the terms, and the musicians agreed to them -

[clifford_thornton]

You can't pay royalties if the records don't sell or if the distributor don't pay you/give you sales records.

[kh1958]

Grimes' wife sent out an email alerting fans to two upcoming gigs with the Symphony for Improvisers Double Quartet (Dave Douglas w/ J.D. Allen, Henry Grimes, and Andrew Cyrille; and Roy Campbell, Jr. w/ Mixashawn, Hilliard Greene, and Hamid Drake) performing Aug. 24 in Saalfelden, Austria, and Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy,on Aug. 28.

This group put on one of the best concerts I've seen in recent years (with William Parker on second bass being the only personnel difference). "Mixashawn" is Lee Rozie.

[musicmargaret]

Hello, all! Here's a current short biography of the great Henry Grimes:

Master jazz musician (acoustic bass, violin) HENRY GRIMES has played more than 3OO concerts in 23 countries (including many festivals) since May of 'O3, when he made his astonishing return to the music world after 35 years away. He was born and raised in Philadelphia and attended the Mastbaum School and Juilliard. In the '5O's and '6O's, he came up in the music playing and touring with Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson, "Bullmoose" Jackson, "Little" Willie John, and a number of other great R&B / soul musicians; but drawn to jazz, he went on to play, tour, and record with many great jazz musicians of that era, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and Rev. Frank Wright.

Sadly, a trip to the West Coast to work with Al Jarreau and Jon Hendricks went awry, leaving Henry in Los Angeles at the end of the '6O's with a broken bass he couldn't pay to repair, so he sold it for a small sum and faded away from the music world. Many years passed with nothing heard from him, as he lived in his tiny rented room in an S.R.O. hotel in downtown Los Angeles, working as a manual laborer, custodian, and maintenance man, and writing many volumes of handwritten poetry.

He was discovered there by a Georgia social worker and fan in 2OO2 and was given a bass by William Parker, and after only a few weeks of ferocious woodshedding, Henry emerged from his room to begin playing concerts around Los Angeles and shortly afterwards made a triumphant return to New York City in May, 'O3 to play in the Vision Festival.

Since then, often working as a leader, he has played, toured, and / or recorded with many of today's music heroes, such as Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell, Ted Curson, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Dave Douglas, Andrew Lamb, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, and Cecil Taylor. In the past few years, Henry has also held a number of residencies and offered workshops and master classes on major campuses (including Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, and several more). He has released several new recordings, made his professional debut on a second instrument (the violin) at the age of 7O, has now published the first volume of his poetry, "Signs Along the Road," and has been creating illustrations to accompany his new recordings and publications.

Henry has received many honors in recent years, including four Meet the Composer grants and a grant from the Acadia Foundation. He can be heard on more than 8O 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. He now lives and teaches in New York City. Please visit his Web site for more information: http://www.henrygrimes.com. Thanks!

Margaret Davis Grimes

http://www.henrygrimes.com

musicmargaret@earthlink.net

[AndrewHill]

Thanks for posting that and clearing up his mysterious disappearance from jazz and earth for that matter!

Truly one of the best comeback stories in jazz.