Legendary bassist Henry Grimes has a re-release on ESP-Disk, “The Call” which is Henry’s only leader disc from the ’6O’s until 2OO3.

For all those who need a recap about his extraordinary life story, Grimes was one of the most sought after bass players in the 50s playing with Albert Ayler, Coleman Hawkins, Archie Shepp, Charles Mingus, Lee Konitz, McCoy Tyner among others.

In 1968 he disappears from the scene, with a bass in bad shape and no money to have it repaired. He sells it with hopes of getting it back later on. After more than three decades of recluse life in a single-room hotel in South Central LA (during which he was considered dead by the jazz aficionados), working countless labor jobs and writing poetry he was found by a jazz musician and Wire author named Marshall Marrotte. Grimes then tells him it’s time to play the bass once again, and after a generous gift by second wave free jazz player William Parker the rest is history. Now Grimes is practically back in form with a revitalized career, playing in jazz fests with artists such as Nels Cline, Joe Lovano, William Parker and Cecil Taylor whom he was playing with 40 years ago, taking part in workshops and being a teacher.

I saw him last year in Istanbul together with Marc Ribot in Ayler’s Spiritual Unity project and it’s inspiring to see him play knowing that he was in the original Albert Ayler lineup. Here’s two songs from his “The Call” which features Perry Robinson on clarinet and Tom Price on drums. If you’re into free/improv jazz and you haven’t already heard this check it out, here’s an in depth review on Bagatellen.