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Jimmy Heath has long been recognized
as a brilliant instrumentalist and a magnificent
composer and arranger. Jimmy is the middle brother
of the legendary Heath Brothers (Percy Heath/bass and
Tootie Heath/drums), and is the father of Mtume.
He has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the
last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and
Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis. In 1948 at the age
of 21, he performed in the First International Jazz
Festival in Paris with McGhee, sharing the stage with
Coleman Hawkins, Slam Stewart, and Erroll Garner.
One of Heath’s earliest big bands (1947-1948) in
Philadelphia included John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Specs
Wright, Cal Massey, Johnny Coles, Ray Bryant, and Nelson
Boyd. Charlie Parker and Max Roach sat in on one
occasion.
During his
career, Jimmy Heath has performed on more than 100
record albums including seven with The Heath Brothers
and twelve as a leader. Jimmy has also written
more than 125 compositions, many of which have become
jazz standards and have been recorded by other artists
including Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry,
Chet Baker, Miles Davis, James Moody, Milt Jackson,
Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie J.J Johnson
and Dexter Gordon. Jimmy has also composed
extended works - seven suites and two string quartets -
and he premiered his first symphonic work, “Three Ears,”
in 1988 at Queens College (CUNY) with Maurice Peress
conducting.
After having just concluded eleven
years as Professor of Music at the Aaron Copland School
of Music at Queens College, Heath maintains an extensive
performance schedule and continues to conduct workshops
and clinics throughout the United States, Europe, and
Canada. He has also taught jazz studies at
Jazzmobile, Housatonic College, City College of New
York, and The New School for Social Research. In
October 1997, two of his former students, trumpeters
Darren Barrett and Diego Urcola, placed first and second
in the Thelonious Monk Competition.
Heath’s enduring dedication to jazz as
well as his musicianship prompted the following
tributes:
“All I can say is, if you know Jimmy
Heath, you know Bop.” — Dizzy
Gillespie
“Trane was always high on
Jimmy’s playing and so was I. Plus, he was a very hip
dude to be with, funny and clean and very intelligent.
Jimmy is one of the thoroughbreds.” —
Miles Davis
“My pick from the world’s talent would
be Diz as leader, John Lewis or Hank Jones on piano, Ray
Brown bass, Milt Jackson vibes, Jimmy Heath tenor, and
Sonny Stitt alto.” — Kenny
Clarke
“I had met Jimmy Heath, who -
besides being a wonderful saxophonist - understood a lot
about musical construction. I joined his group in
Philadelphia in 1948. We were very much alike in
our feeling, phrasing and a whole lot of other ways.
Our musical appetites were the same. We used to
practice together, and he would write out some of the
things we were interested in. We would take things
from records and digest them. In this way, we
learned about the techniques being used by writers and
arrangers.” — John Coltrane,
Downbeat, 1960
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