In avant-garde jazz circles in the mid-1960's, Henry Grimes was one of the most respected bassists working. Trained at Juilliard, he had already played with Anita O'Day, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins when he was in his 20's.

He went on to play on some of the seminal albums of the free-jazz era, by such musicians as Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders. He was known for his ability to alternate from long Eastern-sounding bowing to hard pizzicato plucking, all of which generated tremendous calluses on his hands.

But in the early 70's, after moving to California, Mr. Grimes disappeared. For three decades nobody in music circles heard from him. Several reference works listed him as dead.

And that is how the story of Mr. Grimes might have ended if it were not for a determined fan from Athens, Ga., named Marshall Marrotte

Henry Grimes played at the Vision Festival in NYC earlier today. The New York Times covers a bit of the story, but I read the whole thing a few months back when Mr Marrotte told it in Signal to Noise Magazine. If you don't already subscribe, you should.