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Creator
Grimes, Henry
Call number
JPB 19-08
Physical description
4.14 linear feet (12 boxes, 2 oversize folders). 12.7 gigabytes (994 computer files). 335 audio recordings. 36 video recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Henry Grimes papers, JPB 19-08. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Henry Grimes (1935-2020) was an American jazz double bassist who performed with some of the leading jazz performers of the 1950s and 1960s including Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Joe Henderson, and many others. The Henry Grimes papers (1950-2018) document his life as a performer through sound and video recordings, notebooks, business files, correspondence, photographs, notated music, and artwork.

Biographical/historical information

Henry Grimes (1935-2020) was a jazz double bassist. An advanced and versatile musician, he played in most jazz styles and was also a leading innovator of the 1960s free jazz movement.

Born in Philadelphia, Grimes began playing the violin at age twelve before switching to the double bass. After graduating from Mastbaum Technical High School in Philadelphia, Grimes began attending the Juilliard School in 1952, studying under Frederick Zimmerman of the New York Philharmonic. He quickly developed a reputation as a versatile and innovative player and began working with artists such as Anita O'Day, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, Lennie Tristano, and Billy Taylor.

At the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Grimes stood out, performing six sets over the course of the weekend. Appearing with Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Tony Scott, Lee Konitz, Sonny Rollins, and Thelonious Monk, Grimes impressed the jazz world despite not being listed in the festival program. Grimes is seen briefly in Bert Stern's documentary film of the weekend, Jazz on a Summer's Day, performing with the Thelonious Monk Trio. Immediately following the festival, Grimes' first creative period with Sonny Rollins began with the recording of Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass. This was followed by the Sonny Rollins Trio 1959 tour of Europe. Joined by drummers Kenny Clarke and Pete La Roca, the Sonny Rollins Trio reimagined what a trio could sound like, pushing the sound of jazz in a new direction.

As Grimes' profile in the jazz community grew, he moved further towards the free and avant-garde, appearing on landmark recordings with Cecil Taylor (Unit Structures, Conquistador!), Don Cherry (Complete Communion, Symphony for Improvisers, Where is Brooklyn?), Pharoah Sanders (Tauhid), McCoy Tyner (Reaching Fourth), Albert Ayler (Spirits, Swing Low Sweet Spirituals, Spirits Rejoice), and continued work with Sonny Rollins (Sonny Meets Hawk!). In 1965 he released The Call as a trio leader on ESP-Disk. Joined by Perry Robinson on clarinet and Tom Price on drums, The Call was, at the time, Grimes' lone recording date to feature his own compositions. Grimes also performed with Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, and Jack DeJohnette in 1966; a recording of one of those engagements at the club Slug's in New York City (Forces of Nature) was not released until 2024.

Despite his high profile and regard in the jazz community, paying jobs became harder to come by for Grimes. In 1967, he took a job touring with Jon Hendricks' band from New York to San Francisco, planning to relocate to the West Coast in hopes of better opportunities. However, while driving through the desert, his bass, strapped to the roof of a car and lacking a travel case, was damaged. After reaching San Francisco and performing with Hendricks, Grimes stayed in the Bay Area playing dates with Al Jarreau and doing a short tour with Sunny Murray's group which included Pharoah Sanders and Amiri Baraka.

By 1968, Grimes had settled in Los Angeles, however work continued to be hard to find. With little money and few connections in Los Angeles, Grimes sold his bass, hoping to gather enough funds to eventually buy back and repair his instrument. Instead, Grimes fell out of the music world, began working odd jobs, and lived in single room occupancy housing in downtown Los Angeles, refocusing his creative energy towards writing poetry and exploring his spirituality.

After three decades outside the music world, during which many assumed he had died, Grimes reemerged in 2002 when Marshall Marrotte, a social worker and jazz fan, used his resources to track down the lost bassist. Grimes expressed an interest in returning to performing and word got out that he was in need of an instrument. The bassist William Parker donated one of his doubles basses, nicknamed Olive Oil for its green color, to Grimes who immediately started practicing and soon began to make live appearances in Los Angeles. In May of 2003, Grimes returned to New York for the first time since 1967, appearing at the annual Vision Festival. Soon afterwards he relocated back to New York and began living with Margaret Davis (1940-2023), who became his manager. Davis and Grimes married in 2007.

Over the last sixteen years of his life Grimes performed hundreds of shows, conducted workshops and seminars, and played with the likes of Marc Ribot, Marshall Allen, Rashied Ali, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, and more. At the 2016 Vision Festival, Henry Grimes was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award.

Henry Grimes retired from performing in 2018 due to Parkinson's disease. He died on April 15, 2020 due to complications from Parkinson's and COVID-19.

Scope and arrangement

The Henry Grimes papers (1950-2018) trace Grimes' life and creative output. Much of the material centers around his years living and writing in Los Angeles from the 1970s to 2002, and his reemergence as a musical performer from 2003 onward.

Grimes' career is illustrated by notebooks; writings; sound and video recordings; business files and correspondence; photographs; notated music; and artwork. The bulk of the collection consists of sound and video recordings from across Grimes' career, but primarily from after his return to music in 2003. They include performances, recording sessions, interviews, and master classes.

The Henry Grimes papers are arranged in two series:

  • Series I: Personal Files
    1950-2018

    Series I documents Grimes' life during and after his time away from music, dating mainly from 1967 to 2018, though some photographs date from earlier. It contains the following divisions: Notebooks and Writings; Papers, Correspondence, and Clippings; Visual Material; Photographs; and Notated Music.

    Notebooks and Writings include seventy-six notebooks, notepads, and binders from Grimes' time living in Los Angeles. They hold writings ranging from poetry to prose to Bible study and spiritual exploration; some notebooks are written as diary entries mixed with textual analysis while others are more freeform. In addition to the notebooks, there are typed pages of poetry from the early 2000s. Selections from across these notebooks were compiled in Grimes' book of poetry, Signs Along the Road, published in 2008. Also included here is a musical notation notebook from the 1960s that includes notation and writing on some of Grimes' musical pieces.

    Papers, Correspondence, and Clippings includes material detailing Grimes' personal and professional life. Items include a pocket Bible from Grimes' time in Los Angeles, a certificate commemorating Grimes' graduation from a Bible study course, copies of press release biographies, a detailed live performance itinerary from 2003 to 2018, email correspondence conducted by Margaret Davis-Grimes with record labels regarding the release of Grimes' music, press clippings, and postcards and programs from events honoring Grimes.

    Visual Material consists of artwork produced by or about Henry Grimes. Included are nine concert posters from performances between 2004 and 2012; sixteen pieces of original artwork produced by Grimes; an oil portrait of Henry Grimes painted by Denis Castellas in 2010; and a screenprinted t-shirt from the 2011 Vision Festival, honoring the violinist Billy Bang, and showing Bang conducting a performance with a clear image of Grimes performing violin in an ensemble.

    Photographs include publicity shots of Henry Grimes and images from live performances. The majority of photographs are from Grimes' return to performing in 2003, including photographs from one of his early performances at a house in Sherman Oaks, California. Other photographs document the 2007 WKCR recording session with Grimes and Rashied Ali, which includes a photograph of the two of them that was used on the cover of their album Going to the Ritual. Also of note are portraits with his wife, Margaret Davis-Grimes, and a variety of live performance photographs, such as a 2005 Chicago performance with Marshall Allen and Fred Anderson, and the 2014 memorial concert for Roy Campbell, Jr. held at Roulette in Brooklyn. Also present is a portrait of Henry Grimes on the streets of Los Angeles in 2000, a glimpse into his physical state during his ascetic years.

    Notated music consists mainly of lead sheets for music Grimes was called upon to play for particular performances. These include music of Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Coltrane, Jason Kao Hwang, Roscoe Mitchell, Marc Ribot, and others. The folder of music of Roscoe Mitchell holds both bass parts and full scores for small groups under Mitchell's leadership. Grimes also kept lead sheets for his own music, and maintained a collection of lead sheets by many jazz composers for his own study or for his students, mainly jazz standards from the 1950s to the 1970s. There are also two books: one is an illegal fakebook, Monster Bebop, which has several titles circled in the table of contents, indicating which compositions Grimes was working on. The other, possibly a gift to Grimes, is a short booklet titled African-American Root Patterns: A Gullah Inspired Riddimic Exercise Book, by David Pleasant. See also the notated music notebook in Notebooks and Writings, above.

  • Recorded Sound and Video
    1957-2015

    This series includes over 300 audio and video recordings of live performances, studio recordings, alternate mixes and masters, interviews, and master classes. It is in two divisions: Early Recordings (1957-1963) and Return to Performing (2003-2015).

    Early Recordings feature recording sessions with Shafi Hadi, Hasaan Ibn Ali, Don Cherry, and Ed Blackwell; and live performances with Tony Scott, Sonny Rollins, and Charles Mingus. Further 1960s recordings can be heard on a 1994 broadcast on WKCR-FM, Columbia University in New York.

    The bulk of the series is in the second division, Return to Performing. Most of these are live performances, some under Grimes' leadership (or co-leadership), but the bulk with other leaders. Musicians heard with Grimes include Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Bennie Maupin, David Murray, Marc Ribot, Perry Robinson, Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, Roy Campbell, Jr., Joseph Jarman, Ted Curson, William Parker, David Murray, Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, Fred Anderson, Charlie Persip, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Jemeel Moondoc, Bill Dixon, Roswell Rudd, Patty Waters, Dave Douglas, Roscoe Mitchell, Connie Crothers, Amina Claudine Myers, and Jason Kao Hwang.

    Some live performances were commercially released and exist as both original recordings and mixed and edited masters. There are a few studio recording sessions as well.

    There are also several interviews and oral histories with Grimes, as well as recordings from the Henry Grimes Festival produced by WKCR at Columbia University, which broadcast continuously for five days in late May 2003. The festival included interviews with Grimes and live performances. Other recordings include master classes at Berklee College of Music (2009), Mills College (2010), Hassadna Musical Conservatory in Jerusalem, Israel (2012), and at the Quebec City Jazz Festival (2012).

    Some of the original media items contained papers with further contextual information. These can be found in the insert file at the top of this series.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Henry Grimes in 2019. Additions were donated by Margaret Davis-Grimes in 2022 and Meaddows Ryan in 2023.

Revision History

Additions processed by Matthew Snyder in (2024.)

Processing information

Processed by Christopher Arena in 2020.

Using the collection

Location

Music Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Access restrictions

Inquiries regarding audio and video materials in the collection may be directed to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound (rha@nypl.org). Audio and video materials will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.