Jymie Merritt (; May 3, 1926 – April 10, 2020) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

bassist, bandleader, and composer. Merritt was a member of

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

's Jazz Messengers group from 1957 until 1962. The same year he left Blakey's band, Merritt formed his own group, The Forerunners, which he led sporadically until his death in 2020. Merritt also worked as a

sideman A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform live with a solo artist, or with a group in which they are not a regular band member. The term is usually used to describe musicians that play with jazz or rock artists, whether solo o ...

for

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and jazz musicians such as

Bull Moose Jackson Benjamin Clarence "Bull Moose" Jackson (April 22, 1919 – July 31, 1989) Allmusic biography Accessed January 2008. was an American blues and rhythm-and-blues singer and saxophonist, who was most successful in the late 1940s. He is considered ...

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

, and

Lee Morgan Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s and a cornerstone of the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label, Morgan came to prominence in his la ...

Early life

Born and raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Jymie Merritt, was the son of Agnes Merritt (née Robinson), a choral director, voice and piano teacher, and Raleigh Howard "RH" Merritt, a businessman and author. After serving in the U.S. Army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

from 1944 to 1946 Jymie returned home to work for a short time in his father's real estate business, and after a brief flirtation with the clarinet he was inspired by a

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

recording featuring bassist Jimmy Blanton. Encouraged by his mother he studied with Carl Torello, double bassist for the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...

, and at the Ornstein School of Music in Philadelphia.

Career highlights

Merritt worked in jazz, R&B, and

. In the early 1950s he toured with rock and roll musicians

and Chris Powell moving on to work with bluesman BB King from 1955 to 1957. In 1957, Merritt moved to Manhattan, New York, to work with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. The Messenger ensemble Merritt joined featured his friend

Benny Golson Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024) was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a p ...

as well as

Bobby Timmons Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he ...

and

. Merritt's touring and recording with Blakey extended until 1962, when an unknown ailment forced him to stop touring. By 1964, Merritt was back, working with the trumpeter and vocalist

, and is featured prominently in Baker's unfinished autobiography published under the title ''As Though I Had Wings: The Lost Memoir''. From 1965 to 1968, Merritt worked with the drummer, composer and activist

, not only in the rhythm section but as a composer, recording "Nommo" on Roach's Atlantic album '' Drums Unlimited'' (1966). "Nommo" would earn Merritt a nomination for Best Jazz Composer in ''

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' magazine's Critics Poll. Merritt left

in the late 1960s to work with trumpeter

, appearing with Gillespie's band on ''

The Dick Cavett Show ''The Dick Cavett Show'' is the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including: * ABC daytime, (March 4, 1968 – January 24, 1969) originally titled ''This Morning'' * ABC prime time, Tuesday ...

''. One of Jymie Merritt's most productive showcases as a composer was when he reunited with his former Jazz Messenger

. Morgan's

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

album '' Live at the Lighthouse'' (1970) featuring Merritt's composition "Absolutions" (recorded earlier by Max Roach). In 1962, Jymie Merritt formed and fronted the Forerunners in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band, which evolved into a music cooperative exploring Merritt's own system of chord inversions, harmonics, and unique approaches to composition and rehearsals, produced a lexicon of its own known as the "Forerunner system" or concept. The Forerunner concept in its early days culminated in Merritt's expansive composition "Visions of the Ghost Dance". Lee Morgan Jymie Merritt and Wayne Shorter

Lee Morgan Jymie Merritt and Wayne Shorter

Among the original members of the Forerunner band were Odean Pope, Kenny Lowe, Donald Bailey, and September Wrice. This group performed regularly in and around Philadelphia for five years, until Merritt joined Max Roach's band. Pope also joined Roach's band, playing with him into the 1970s. Forerunner was on and off periodically from the 1960s through the 1980s, depending on what band Merritt was playing with at the time as well as how his health was. Saxophonist Bobby Zankel was a member of the second incarnation of the band when he joined in 1982, which also included Alan Nelson, Odean Pope, Julian Pressley, Colmore Duncan, and Warren McLendon. Zankel is primarily known as an alto saxophonist, but played baritone sax with the band, and described the role of the sax section over solos as taking on an accompanying role, where they would always play under the soloist, comparing it to the typical role of the bassist but in the sax section." Approaching his 90th birthday Merritt continued to rehearse and perform with the current incarnation of The Forerunners, some of whom had been with the ensemble from its inception.

Pioneer of the electric bass

Merritt joined the Bull Moose Jackson band in 1949, and was an early adopter of the Ampeg Baby bass (a hybrid acoustic-electric instrument). Merritt recalls when he first bought a Fender

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

: "Now all this time, I had been playing electric bass, from about the first year of service with the Bull Moose band. We were out in Oklahoma somewhere, when Benny Golson saw this Western band, what you call a hillbilly band, with a fellow playing what looked like a guitar and sounded like a bass. Benny got me over to hear this and we later saw one in a music store. Benny went in for some reeds or something, so I tried a Fender electric bass and that night I took it to work. The owner let me take it and I tried it out working and nobody raised any objection. I had been having trouble with my own bass, one of the assembly line types, so I was in the market for a new bass. Anyway, I got curious and bought the thing and played it for the next seven years or so. I guess at the time I was the only one in jazz playing an electric bass. Certainly, I’m pretty sure Monk Montgomery wasn’t playing one because we used to see him in Minneapolis and he was always interested to see the instrument."

Awards and honors

In November 2013, along with friend and fellow bassist

Reggie Workman Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey, in addition to Alice Coltrane, Mal Waldron, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Tri ...

, Jymie Merritt received the Clef Club of Philadelphia's Living Legend, Jazz Award. At the 2009 Philadelphia Jazz Fair, produced by musician and professor Don Glanden, Philadelphia's University of the Arts and the Jazz Heritage Project honored Jymie Merritt and the jazz organist

Trudy Pitts Gertrude E. "Trudy" Pitts (August 10, 1932 – December 19, 2010) was an American soul jazz keyboardist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was known primarily for playing the Hammond B3 organ. Biography Trained as a musician and a music ed ...

with the Jazz Heritage Award. Merritt's award was presented to him by another great Philadelphia bassist, the late Charles Fambrough. In addition, Jymie Merritt was honored with the Don Redman Heritage Award in June 2008 at a ceremony and concert in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia at the annual event sponsored by the Harpers Ferry Historical Association and the Jefferson County NAACP in cooperation with the Don Redman Heritage Society of Piedmont, West Virginia.

Personal life

Merritt's marriage to Dorothy Viola Small (d. 2008) produced five children: Mharlyn Merritt, a writer and vocalist who received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Jazz Performance in 1988; Marlon Merritt, an accomplished guitarist and retired career Army veteran of the Iraqi War; Martyn Merritt (deceased), world traveler, bon vivant and classical pianist who studied with internationally acclaimed pianist Leon Bates; Marvon Merritt, percussionist and drummer, and Mike Merritt, a renowned bassist in his own right who has performed and recorded with

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for The Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Hel ...

Phoebe Snow Phoebe Snow (born Phoebe Ann Laub; July 17, 1950 – April 26, 2011) was an American roots music singer-songwriter and guitarist, known for her hit 1974 and 1975 songs "Poetry Man" and "Harpo's Blues", and her credited guest vocals on Paul Simo ...

Johnny Copeland John Clyde Copeland (March 27, 1937 – July 3, 1997) was an American Texas blues guitarist and singer. In 1983, he was named Blues Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation. He is the father of blues singer Shemekia Copeland. In 2017, ...

, B. B. King and many other world-class musicians. Mike is best known as the bassist for the Basic Cable Band on

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, actor, and producer. He is best known for having hosted Late-night talk show, late-night talk shows, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'B ...

's TBS talk-show. Continuing the family's musical heritage in 2005 Mike co-produced along with his sister Mharlyn an independent CD on the EMerrittus label featuring brother Marlon on guitar,

Uri Caine Uri Caine (born June 8, 1956) is an American classical music, classical and jazz pianist and composer from Philadelphia. Biography Early years Caine was born on June 8, 1956, in Philadelphia, to Burton Caine (1928–2023), a professor at Temple ...

Al Kooper Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s he was a prolific studio musician, including playing organ on the Bob Dylan song " Like ...

Lew Soloff Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944 – March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. He was a founding member of the band Blood, Sweat & Tears. Biography From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studie ...

and the Vivino Brothers entitled "Alone Together". Merritt had a younger brother, LeRoy Merritt, an amateur artist and arts and crafts enthusiast who lived in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Merritt lived in

Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the ci ...

, with his wife Ave and his cat Jazzie. He died on April 10, 2020, of

liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...

in Philadelphia, aged 93.

Discography

As sideman

With

and the Jazz Messengers * '' Moanin''' (Blue Note, 1958) *'' 1958 – Paris Olympia'' (Fontana, 1958) * ''Des Femmes Disparaissent'' (Fontana, 1958 959 *'' At the Jazz Corner of the World'' (Blue Note, 1959) *''Just Coolin'' (Blue Note, 1959 020 * ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' (Fontana, 1959) – with Barney Wilen *'' Africaine'' (Blue Note, 1959 981 *'' Paris Jam Session'' (1959 961 *'' The Big Beat'' (Blue Note, 1960) *'' Like Someone in Love'' (Blue Note, 1960 967 *'' Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1'' (Blue Note, 1960 961 *'' Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2'' (Blue Note, 1960 962 *'' A Night in Tunisia'' (Blue Note, 1960 961 *''

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...

'' (Impulse, 1961) *''

Mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

'' (Blue Note, 1961 962 *''A Day with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers'' (Baybridge, 1961 981 *'' The Freedom Rider'' (Blue Note, 1961 964 *'' Roots & Herbs'' (Blue Note, 1961 970 *'' Pisces'' (Blue Note, 1961; 1964 971 *''

Three Blind Mice "Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery rhyme and musical round.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 306. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753. ...

'' (United Artists, 1961; 1962 962 *'' Buhaina's Delight'' (Blue Note, 1961

963 Year 963 (Roman numerals, CMLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 15 – Emperor Romanos II dies at age 39, probably of poison administered by his wife, Emp ...

*'' The Witch Doctor'' (Blue Note, 1961 967 With

*'' The Most Important Jazz Album of 1964/65'' (Colpix, 1964) With

Sonny Clark Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom. Early life Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of P ...

*'' The Art of The Trio'' (Blue Note, 1958

980 Year 980 ( CMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Peace is concluded between Emperor Otto II (the Red) and King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) at Margut, ending the Franco-Germa ...

*''

Blues in the Night "Blues in the Night" is a popular blues song which has become a pop standard and is generally considered to be part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun wi ...

'' (Blue Note, 1958

979 Year 979 (Roman numerals, CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. It was the 979th year of the Common Era and the Anno Domini designation, the 979th year of the 1st millennium, the 79th year of the 10th century, ...

*''

Standards Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object t ...

'' (Blue Note, 1958 998 With

Curtis Fuller Curtis DuBois Fuller (December 15, 1932May 8, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist. He was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributed to many classic jazz recordings. Early life Fuller was born in Detroit on December 15, 193 ...

*'' South American Cookin''' (Epic, 1961) – with

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

*'' Soul Trombone'' (Impulse, 1961) With

*'' The Other Side of Benny Golson'' (Riverside, 1958) With

*'' Live at the Lighthouse'' (Blue Note, 1970 971 *'' The Last Session'' (Blue Note, 1971 972 With

*'' Drums Unlimited'' (Atlantic, 1965; 1966 966 *'' Members, Don't Git Weary'' (Atlantic, 1968) ;With

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary comp ...

* '' Wayning Moments'' (Vee-Jay, 1961 962 ;With

Jimmy Witherspoon James Witherspoon (August 8, 1920 – September 18, 1997) was an American jump blues and jazz singer. Early life, family and education Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. His father was a railroad worker who sang in local choirs, an ...

* '' The Blues Is Now'' (Verve, 1967)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Jymie 1926 births 2020 deaths American jazz double-bassists American male double-bassists Hard bop double-bassists The Jazz Messengers members Military personnel from Philadelphia Jazz musicians from Philadelphia 21st-century American double-bassists American male jazz musicians