Jazz great Henry Grimes dies at age 84

Grimes was a renowned bassist and skilled at many other instruments, playing with numerous musicians in the ’50s and ’60s, including Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus, Sunny Murray, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and McCoy Tyner. By the end of the ’60s, however, he found himself broke in Los Angeles with a busted bass, and completely disappeared from the music scene. Many thought he had died but in the early 2000s he was found still living in Los Angeles, in a rented room doing odd jobs to make ends meet. He was given a new bass by William Parker and reemerged with new passion staying busy as a musician from then on. WBGO has his story.