Henry Grimes live from Blue Lake, tonight, 10 p.m.

[Lazaro Vega]

Please join Blue Lake Public Radio tonight from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. edt for a special live performance by Renaissance man Henry Grimes -- solo bass, violin and poetry -- followed by four hours of Jazz From Blue Lake via www.bluelake.org/radio

This is Henry Grimes third appearance from Blue Lake's studios. Tonight we'll receive help from John Erskine of the Hope College Sound and Recording Lab and his friend Jean Yves Munch (a relative of the composer).

[JSngry]

How is Henry these days?

[Lazaro Vega]

Seemed in good spirits. I tried to ask him about the difference in articulation of stringed instruments in jazz vs horns, pianos, etc. in that you have a loud/soft articulation and most horns will articulate soft/loud. That's in swing playing at least. But the conversation just got away from me. In the end, though, Henry picked up his violin and said, "I want to try something on what you were asking me" and went to town. He asked me how I liked it, which was a first, too. I got to play my trumpet for him some (before we went on the air) and we talked about improvisation. When I heard him in the station with Roy Campbell they were playing free, yet seemed to have an agreed upon in the moment center of sound. So I was trying to get into that with Henry. He basically said you have to play around the center. I was like, "The circle of 4ths?" He said that was part of it. "And the major and minor and modal scales?" That too. He said, with emphasis, "then be ready."

Henry was in Chicago, by the way, then came by Blue Lake on his way to the Guelph Jazz Fest. Then a few dates in Buffalo and some stellar hits back in New York with Marilyn Crispell and Andrew Cyrille.

[JSngry]

When I heard him in the station with Roy Campbell they were playing free, yet seemed to have an agreed upon in the moment center of sound. So I was trying to get into that with Henry. He basically said you have to play around the center. I was like, "The circle of 4ths?" He said that was part of it. "And the major and minor and modal scales?" That too. He said, with emphasis, "then be ready."

...then be ready...

Ladies and gentleman, there you have it - the essence of jazz, not just as music, but as life itself!

[Chuck Nessa]

Indeed. Henry has the clue. Sorry I wasn't back in time for the performance - day late and......

[Lazaro Vega]

Margaret said, "Hi" and congratulations, Chuck.

Jim, when Henry and Roy were at the station in 2006, Henry making his public debut on violin, they warmed up in the sound check playing "The Shadow of Your Smile," Henry walking a nice bass line, Roy playing the melody, a 1/2 chorus or something on the changes just to get levels. Then when we went to air, Henry played "zoop" on the violin and Roy played "zeep" on the trumpet and it was in perfect counterpoint moving away from a tonal center that wasn't declared until Henry's first gesture on the violin. That blew my mind pretty good. Because the sounds were more refined that zoop and zeep -- they had contours and character that were graceful and controlled. Though improvised, nothing was approximate.

So I was trying to get back to that this week, to discuss it. Henry basically said the music is always. When you're playing it, you're stepping into something that's already going, and when you stop, you've only stepped out of it. But the music is still going on. And that's exactly what it sounded like when he and Roy were playing, because in a mili-second they were way past "on" and deep into some detailed conversation that was long past pleasantries and introduction and exposition, even, and already at the give and take at an important conceptual level of discussion. The idea was, seemingly, already stated and they were now, in the blink of an eye, weighing in on its merits, problems, exhalations and nightmares. Roscoe might call that "The Flow of Things." Henry said he got his first true contact with this notion while working with Sonny Rollins.

[JSngry]

Yeah, it's always there, it never goes away. You might, but it doesn't.

That's why you gotta be ready!!!!

I love it man, that's the brightes thing I've heard in a long time...then be ready.