Henry Grimes (November 3, 1935 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz musician who played the double bass and violin.

After more than 10 years of performing, especially as a top bassist in a type of jazz called free jazz, Grimes stopped performing and recording music by 1970. Many people thought he had died, but he was found in 2002 and began performing again.

Biography

Henry Alonzo Grimes was born in Philadelphia to parents who had both played musical instruments when they were young. He began learning the violin at age 12 and later played the tuba, English horn, and percussion before switching to the double bass at Mastbaum Technical High School. He continued his music education at Juilliard and became known as a skilled bassist by the mid-1950s.

Grimes performed or recorded with many famous musicians, including pianist Lennie Tristano, saxophonists Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, and Sonny Rollins, pianists Thelonious Monk and McCoy Tyner, singer Anita O'Day, and clarinetist Benny Goodman. When bassist Charles Mingus wanted to add a second bass player to his band, he chose Grimes for the role. Grimes first appeared on film in the 1958 documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day, part of the Newport Jazz Festival. At 22 years old, he played with six different groups during the festival, though his name was not listed in the printed program. A New York Times critic, Bosley Crowther, noted his talent and called him one of the festival’s key performers.

As free jazz grew in popularity, Grimes performed with important musicians in the movement, such as pianist Cecil Taylor, trumpeter Don Cherry, and saxophonists Steve Lacy, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler. In 1966, he released an album called The Call as a leader for ESP-Disk Records. The album included clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price and showed his musical style during that time.

In the late 1960s, Grimes moved to California, and his career slowed. Many people believed he had died, and his name appeared in some jazz references as such. In 2002, a social worker and jazz fan named Marshall Marrotte found Grimes alive but struggling financially in Los Angeles. He lived in a small apartment, wrote poetry, and did odd jobs to support himself. He had not kept in touch with the jazz world and did not know that Albert Ayler had died in 1970. After learning of his return, musicians and fans helped him by donating a bass, covering travel costs, and arranging performances. His comeback was reported in The New York Times and on National Public Radio. A biography titled Music to Silence to Music was published in 2015.

After returning to music, Grimes performed at more than 20 festivals and events in 2003. He was welcomed as a hero at the Vision Festival, a free jazz event, and began teaching bass lessons and workshops. His November 2003 performance with trumpeter Dennis González on Nile River Suite was his second recording in over 35 years. His first was a solo concert broadcast from Columbia University in New York. In 2004, he recorded as a leader with David Murray and Hamid Drake. In 2005, he worked with guitarist Marc Ribot, who wrote an introduction to Grimes’ first book, Signs Along the Road, published in 2007. The book included poetry he wrote during years away from music. In 2007, he recorded with drummer Rashied Ali, played duo concerts with him, and performed in a trio with Marilyn Crispell. He also worked with Paul Dunmall and Andrew Cyrille in a group called the Profound Sound Trio.

From 2003 until his 80th year in 2016, Grimes performed over 640 concerts in 30 countries. He played with many musicians, including 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 he reunited in 2006 after 40 years), John Tchicai, and others.

In 2011, the Chelsea Art Museum recreated a 1960s performance called Black Zero, originally created by artist Aldo Tambellini. Grimes joined the event, playing with Ben Morea while Tambellini projected slides and films and played recordings of poet Calvin Hernton.

Between 2003 and 2016, Grimes also gave workshops and residencies at colleges such as City College of New York, Berklee College of Music, Hamilton College, New England Conservatory, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, the University of Gloucestershire, and Humber College. He released or played on 12 new recordings, made his professional debut on the violin at age 70 with Cecil Taylor at Lincoln Center, and created illustrations for his recordings and books. He received four Meet the Composer grants and appeared on nearly 90 recordings for labels like Atlantic, Ayler Records, Blue Note, Columbia, ESP-Disk, ILK Music, Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter Records, Prestige, Riverside, and Verve.

Grimes lived in 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 at Judson Memorial Church. He stopped performing in 2018 due to severe disabilities caused by Parkinson’s disease.

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

Discography

• 1966: The Call (ESP-Disk)
• 2005: Live at the Kerava Jazz Festival (Ayler Records)
• 2007: The Power of Light (Not Two)
• 2008: Going to the Ritual (with Rashied Ali, Porter Records)
• 2009: Opus de Life (with Paul Dunmall and Andrew Cyrille as the Profound Sound Trio, Porter Records)
• 2009: Solo (ILK Music)
• 2010: Spirits Aloft (with Rashied Ali, Porter Records)
• 2014: The Tone of Wonder (solo, double bass and violin, Uncool Edition)

• I Love the Life I Live (Columbia, 1960)

• Spirits (Debut, 1964)
• Spirits Rejoice (ESP, 1965)
• Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village (Impulse!, 1967) – live recorded in 1966–67
• Swing Low Sweet Spiritual (Osmosis, 1981) – recorded in 1965

• West Side Story Bossa Nova (Dauntless, 1963)

• Skin Burns (Roulette, 1963)

• Complete Communion (Blue Note, 1966) – recorded in 1965
• Symphony for Improvisers (Blue Note, 1967) – recorded in 1966
• Where Is Brooklyn? (Blue Note, 1969) – recorded in 1966

• Jazz Impressions of Lawrence of Arabia (Dauntless, 1963)

• Debut Rarities, vol. 3 (recorded in 1957, NYC, by the Shafi Hadi Sextet; released as Original Jazz Classics CD OJCCD-1821-2 in 1993)

• Out of the Afternoon (Impulse!, 1962)

• Vibrations in the Village: Live at the Village Gate (Resonance, 2025) – recorded in 1963

• Tranquility (Verve, 1957)

• Be My Guest (Panorama)

• The Carmen Leggio Group (Jazz Unlimited)

• The Gerry Mulligan Songbook (World Pacific, 1957)
• Reunion with Chet Baker (World Pacific, 1957) – with Chet Baker
• Annie Ross Sings a Song with Mulligan! (World Pacific, 1957) – with Annie Ross

• Requiem (Splasc(H), 2006) – with Charles Gayle

• Spiritual Unity (Pi Recordings, 2005)
• Live at the Village Vanguard (Pi, 2014)

• Brass & Trio (1958)
• In Stockholm (1959)
• A Jazz Evening With: Oleo (1959)
• Sonny Meets Hawk! (1963)

• Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967)

• Shirley Scott Plays Horace Silver (Prestige)

• Further Fire Music (Impulse!)
• On This Night (Impulse!)

• Uptown (Riverside, 1960)
• Warming Up! (Riverside, 1960)

• Into the Hot (Impulse! – issued under Gil Evans's name)
• Conquistador! (Blue Note)
• Unit Structures (Blue Note)

• Continuity (Jazz Records)

• Reaching Fourth (Impulse!)

• Marzette Watts and Company (ESP-Disk)

• Frank Wright Trio (ESP-Disk)
• The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings (ESP-Disk)

Additional recent CD releases can be found online.