Parallel Lines, Far from Straight

Given the eerie similarities between avant-gardists Henry Grimes and Giuseppi Logan, what might be most surprising about them was what they didn’t share.

Grimes, a bassist (who died April 15 of complications from COVID-19) and Logan, a multi-reedist (who died April 17, also of COVID), were both born in 1935—less than six months apart—in Philadelphia; both received formal musical training; both became significant figures in the mid-’60s “New Thing” and recorded for the ESP-Disk’ label; both then vanished from the public eye for decades, only to resurface in the 2000s and be welcomed back into the jazz community.

And, in a final twist