Juilliard-trained bassist Henry Grimes, born in Philadelphia on this day in 1935, is known for one of the most intriguing comebacks in jazz history. After performing with such legends as Sonny Rollins, Benny Goodman, Monk and Mingus, he disappeared to California in the late 1960s and eventually dropped out of the music scene. Tracked down in LA in 2002 by a jazz-loving social worker who found him destitute, he resumed his career and quickly made up for lost time, receiving a hero’s welcome at the free jazz-oriented Vision Festival. You can check him out performing with Kidd Jordan at a 75th birthday concert and with Sonny Rollins and friends in this 1962 clip shot in Rome. Henry Grimes died on April 15, 2020, at age 84 from complications of COVID-19.
