Tiny grimes

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Tiny Grimes with tenor guitar (model Gibson EST-150 ), around 1947. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb , New York

Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes (* 7. July 1916 in Newport News , Virginia ; † 4. March 1989 New York City ) was an American jazz - and rhythm-and-blues - guitarist and singer . With his quartet he recorded the first bebop pieces in a regular recording session with Charlie Parker .

Live and act

Grimes first played the drums. He played the piano as an autodidact and took part in amateur competitions in Washington, DC from 1935 . In 1938 he worked as a pianist and dancer in New York . Under the influence of Charlie Christian , with whom he jammed in Minton's Playhouse in Harlem , he learned to play guitar without lessons and played in 1940/41 with the band The Cats And The Fiddle . This formation realized the idea of four votes as saxophone section equal to their first 78s , the piece Gang Busters, the vocal transcription of a chorus included, the Benny Carter had written for his saxophone section. The high points of her short career were the records Killing Jive, Public Jitterbug No. 1 and When I Grew Old Too Old to Dream, which they recorded for Bluebird Records .

He gained fame on the jazz scene of that time through membership in the duo with Slam Stewart , which formed the backbone for the trio by Art Tatum (1943-44). Grimes, who always played a four-string tenor guitar , made recordings with Earl Bostic , Walter Brown , Buck Clayton , Cozy Cole , John Hardee , Clyde Hart , Coleman Hawkins , Billie Holiday , the Metronome All-Stars , Hot Lips Page , Ike during this time Quebec and many others.

From 1947 Grimes tried his luck with rhythm and blues bands like the Rockin 'Highlanders, who performed in Scottish kilts (with saxophonist Red Prysock or Benny Golson and singer Screaming Jay Hawkins ), as well as the Tiny “Mac” Grimes; Recordings were made for United . He can also be heard in 1953 as an accompanist on the hit Gee by the group The Crows , which is considered one of the first rock 'n' roll recordings (others name the track Tiny's Boogie, recorded by Grimes in New York in August 1946 ). An illness forced him to take a break from 1964, but from 1968 he was again to be heard at festivals and workshops, so among others with Ray Nance , Milt Buckner , Jay McShann , Earl Hines and Larry Coryell . He was one of the guitarists at the big all-star concert in New York in 1971 (documented on The Guitar Album - The Historic Town Hall Concert ). In 1973 and 1974 he performed at the Newport Jazz Festivals and then played again regularly in New York clubs such as the West End Cafe .

The "Red Cross Session"

In September 1944, Charlie Parker jammed frequently with the Tiny Grimes Band at 52nd Street jazz clubs . On September 14th, Buck Ram , the then recording manager of Savoy Records , wanted to record with Tiny's band. Because he expected it to be more successful, Tiny primarily wanted to record vocal numbers, the first instrumental title (Tiny's Tempo) was intended more as a "warm-up". The session turned out to be so disastrous due to the lack of singing skills of Tiny Grimes that Buck Ram asked the band and Charlie to record a second instrumental title (both titles were actually intended for the back of the 78er shellac records). This is how Charlie Parker's two takes of Red Cross came about. Bird still follows the more conventional rhythmic framework of swing , but already shifts the accents to the emerging bebop and phrases with a modern feel. After their “discovery” by jazz fans, Tiny's Tempo and Red Cross became something like the cornerstone of a modern record collection. Savoy Records finally recognized the value of these recordings and released them on a record (Wilson / Goeman).

The vocal pieces for this session were: I'll Always Love Just The Same and Romance Without Finance . They are not included on the LP / CD The Immortal Charlie Parker (Savoy).

Discographic notes

As a leader

As a sideman

  • Art Tatum: The V-Discs ( Black Lion , 1944-1946)
  • Art Tatum: Over The Rainbow (Dreyfus, 1940-1949)
  • Billie Holiday: Billies Blues ( Blue Note , 1951)
  • Charlie Parker: The Immortal Charlie Parker (Savoy, 1944–1948)
    The Tiny Grimes Band with Harold West (dr), Jimmy Butts (b, voc), Clyde Hart (p). Tiny Grimes was the leader of the "Red Cross Session", it was later published only under Charlie Parker's name.
  • The Prestige Blues Swingers: Soul Street (Sampler, Prestige, 1958–1962)
  • Coleman Hawkins: Hawk Eyes (Prestige / OJC, 1959)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Grimes, Tiny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grimes, Lloyd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz and R&B musician
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Newport News , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH March 4th 1989
Place of death New York City