RIP: Howard Grimes

February 14, 2022·34 min·3 clips

Willie Mitchell revealed why Al Jackson stayed furious at him for years over Love and Happiness.

Joe opens in grief. The Trap Set is due back from hiatus soon, but first he shares his 2015 conversation with Howard Grimes after Grimes died at 80. The tone is spare and affectionate. Before the interview settles in, Joe places Grimes behind Al Green and the High Records rhythm section, where his drumming helped hold together records people still carry close. Grimes keeps the story practical. He talks about trying out for Willie Mitchell's band after playing in groups that kept speeding up. Mitchell stopped him, calmly, and gave him a different way to hear time. This was not a flashy lesson. It was about slowing down until the musicians could arrive in the same place. That changed the way Grimes listened. He remembers Mitchell setting the time, calling the feel, and giving the groove enough room to sit down instead of running ahead of itself. The foot is the part that sticks. Grimes watched Mitchell's foot on the one, using that downbeat when the pocket needed to settle. That detail gives the episode its weight. Grimes is not telling a celebrity story. He is describing how trust gets built in a studio, one beat at a time. Mitchell's calm worked its way into him. Grimes became comfortable in Mitchell's world, hearing the way Mitchell heard things and learning how time could be shaped from there. The names stay human-sized: Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, Denise LaSalle, the Hodges brothers, and later Scott. Joe mostly stays out of the way. By the end, he thanks Grimes as one of the all-time greats, and Grimes receives it without turning the moment grand.

As heard by us

A warm Howard Grimes tribute about Memphis soul, Willie Mitchell's calm time feel, and the patience behind a deep pocket.

Joe Wong marks Howard Grimes's death by returning to a 2015 Trap Set conversation with the Memphis drummer, and the episode is strongest when it stays close to Grimes's own sense of time.

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Why you'd press play

Hear Howard Grimes tell the story of a Memphis drummer who helped shape classic soul.

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