Most music lovers have memorable concert experiences that linger for years and even decades afterwards. One of mine is a performance by the legendary Heath Brothers I saw as a student at Augustana College (now Augustana University) in Sioux Falls.
I was no stranger to jazz when bassist Percy Heath and his saxophonist brother Jimmy brought their band to Augie. I’d been listening to jazz for years on the records I found in my dad’s collection and the local public library, along with the few albums I could afford to buy for myself. I was also music director at the campus radio station KAUR-FM and hosting my own jazz programs.
Yet I rarely had the opportunity to hear live jazz. Growing up in Brookings I was fortunate to hear such great musicians as trombonists Urbie Green and Phil Wilson, trumpeter Bud Brisbois and drummer Louie Bellson, but they were guest clinicians performing with the SDSU jazz bands and not playing with their own groups. Hearing the Heath Brothers was a much higher level of live jazz for me.
I was reminded of that memorable Heath Brothers concert when I read that saxophonist, composer and educator Jimmy Heath died January 19 at the age of 93. Although not as famous as his tenor contemporaries John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins or Stan Getz, he was one of the greats as both a saxophonist and composer. Several of his compositions like “CTA,” “Gemini” and “Gingerbread Boy” are modern jazz standards.
Heath came up in the mid-1940s and was one of the last living links to the bop era. He led his own big band in his hometown of Philadelphia (one of his saxophonists was John Coltrane), but it broke up in 1949 when Heath was offered a job with Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra.
Like many jazz musicians of his generation, Heath fell under the spell of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. He was also playing alto at the time and sounded so much like his idol that the 5’ 3” Heath was given the nickname “Little Bird.” To help avoid comparisons to Parker, Heath switched to tenor and developed his own distinctive sound.
Also, like too many jazz musicians of the time, Heath became addicted to heroin. Beginning in 1954, he spent several critical years in prison for selling drugs. But he stayed busy with music by leading the penitentiary big band and writing music. He’d smuggle out compositions and arrangements by giving them to his younger brother Albert Heath, a drummer, during family visits. After his release, he rebuilt his career and remained clean for the rest of his life. He recorded his first album as a leader in 1959 and worked frequently with vibraphonist Milt Jackson and trumpeter Art Farmer through the 1960s.
His older brother Percy played bass with the Modern Jazz Quartet. When that famous group disbanded, Jimmy, Percy and Albert formed the Heath Brothers band. Originally a quartet with Stanley Cowell on piano, the band expanded with the addition of guitarist Tony Purrone. Albert left the group after a couple years and was replaced by Akira Tana.
This was the line-up I heard at Augustana College’s Kresge Recital Hall back in 1982. Although the venue seated 356, I remember only a few dozen people were in attendance, but all of us seemed thrilled to be in the presence of these world-class jazz masters and legends. They presented a program of hard bop with doses of jazzy funk. The brothers were an entertaining presence on stage and I’ll never forget Percy Heath playfully dancing around his bass to the disco beat of Jimmy’s composition “(There’s) A Time and a Place.”
As much as I enjoyed all of the recorded jazz I listened to through the years, none of it could compare to the excitement of hearing it played live by these great musicians, among the finest in jazz history. Until then I don’t think I really understood that jazz must be experienced live and in the moment in order to grasp its full power. It felt like I never really heard jazz before that Heath Brothers concert.
After the performance, Percy and Jimmy stood outside of the recital hall talking to members of the audience. I thanked them for coming to Sioux Falls and asked for their autographs. Jimmy wrote “thanks for your ears.”
I didn’t get the chance to hear much live jazz again until I moved to Northfield, Minnesota many years later. I took every opportunity to make the hour-long drive to the Twin Cities to hear great musicians perform at the Dakota, the Artists’ Quarter and the University of Minnesota.
Fifteen years after I first saw them at Augustana, the Heath Brothers performed at the old Dakota in St. Paul’s Bandana Square. In the intervening years, the Heath Brothers band played infrequently. Percy was busy with the reformed Modern Jazz Quartet and Jimmy was teaching jazz at Queen’s College. But they were back together, with Albert again on the drums. I had a warmth and affection for them after meeting them when I was in college and was excited to see them again.
I had them sign their latest CD between sets and I’m sure I must have told them what an amazing experience it was to have seen them back in the early 80s.
Percy died in 2005, but Jimmy and Albert made one final album together as the Heath Brothers four years later.
I was honored when Jimmy Heath thanked me for my ears. Now as I mourn his passing, I’m thankful he created so much remarkable music for my ears to enjoy.