# Jymie Merritt, bassist who brought a rooted yet exploratory spirit to post-bop, dies at 93: Videos. Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/04/11/jymie-merritt-bassist-who-brought-a-rooted-yet-exploratory-spirit-to-post-bop-dies-at-93-videos-photos/
- Published: 2020-04-11T21:43:56+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Jymie Merritt, a bassist who anchored some of the leading groups of jazz’s postwar
era, like Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, before establishing his own sphere of
influence as a composer and theorist in Philadelphia, died on Friday. He was 93.**

His son Mike Merritt, who is also an accomplished bassist, announced his death on
social media, without providing a cause.

Merritt will always be best recognized for his four-year tenure in the Jazz Messengers,
which was inaugurated with the 1958 album _Moanin’_, a hard-bop cornerstone. Along
with Blakey’s intensely locomotive drumming, Merritt formed the only constant in
the band from the late ‘50s into the early ‘60s, through multiple changes in lineup
and direction.

[[

Jymie Merritt at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, N.J., during the 1958 recording
date for ‘Moanin’.’

He can be heard on the live albums _At the Jazz Corner of the World _(1959) and 
_A Night in Tunisia _(1960), as well as studio efforts like _Mosaic _(1962) and 
_Buhaina’s Delight _(1963).

Almost all of these albums (a mere sampling of his work with Blakey) were made for
Blue Note Records, which will release a previously unreleased album by the band 
on Aug. 7, featuring Blakey and Merritt alongside pianist Bobby Timmons, saxophonist
Hank Mobley and trumpeter Lee Morgan.

Merritt’s deep kinship with Morgan yielded another notable chapter in his career.
He was a member of the trumpeter’s final bands, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.
This group, which marked Morgan’s return to the spotlight after a difficult period,
made a double album called _Live at the Lighthouse _in 1970. Recorded at the Lighthouse
Café in Hermosa Beach, Calif., the original LP opens with a characteristically intrepid
Merritt composition, “Absolutions.”

Merritt had originally composed “Absolutions” for drummer Max Roach — another important
association in the 1960s. After he left the Jazz Messengers, Merritt worked first
for a time with Chet Baker, appearing on that trumpeter’s wryly titled _The Most
Important Jazz Album Of 1964-65_. He also worked in that decade with trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie, joining the bebop paragon on tour.

But his work with Roach stands out because of his contributions as a composer. In
addition to “Absolutions,” which appears on the 1968 album _Members, Don’t Git Weary,
_Roach recorded a Merritt tune called “Nommo,” for his 1966 release _Drums Unlimited._“
Nommo,” whose title is derived from a West African term meaning “the power of the
spoken word,” stands as a Merritt trademark, combining elements of hard bop and 
advanced modal jazz, in a grooving 7/4 meter.

James Raleigh Merritt was born on May 3, 1926 in Philadelphia. His father, Raleigh,
had moved to the city a few years earlier, after graduating from the Tuskegee Institute,
where he’d befriended George Washington Carver. In Philadelphia he worked in real
estate and helped establish the Vine Memorial Baptist Church.

Jymie’s mother, Agnes, played and taught piano, in addition to teaching elementary
school. So he grew up in a musical household, starting out on tenor saxophone and
only switching to the bass in his early 20s, after his Army service overseas during
World War II.

Though it wasn’t as visible to the public, Merritt led a productive career before
his time with Blakey. He started out in rhythm and blues, backing Bull Moose Jackson
from 1949-53, and later touring with B.B. King. It was during this period that Merritt
became a prominent early adopter of the electric bass; he brought his first Fender
electric not long after it went into production in the fall of 1951.

Similarly, Merritt did extensive work as a bandleader and mentor in Philadelphia,
both before and after he had left the national spotlight. His group The Forerunners
first took shape in the early 1960s, with members including pianist Colmare Duncan
and vocalist September Wrice; they recorded a single called “Sweetest Sound Bossa
Nova.”

Later iterations of the band, also known as Forerunner, would include saxophonists
Odean Pope, Julian Pressley, Bobby Zankel and Terry Lawson; percussionist Warren
McLendon; drummer Alan Nelson; and Mike Merritt, best known for his longtime post
in the house bands for late-night host Conan O’Brien.

In 2016, Jazz Night in America devoted an hourlong episode to Jymie Merritt and 
Forerunner, featuring a concert at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

“Rhythm is very complex, because it’s the basis on which the entire universe is 
constructed,” Merritt remarks in the program, which also features insights from 
his son, and several of his devoted band mates. “All life has a pattern, and once
you can tap into that pattern, you tap into all aspects of life.”

![](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/202004/
JMJazzNight.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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