# Legendary saxophonist, composer and Jazz educator Jimmy Heath dies at 93: Videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/01/20/legendary-saxophonist-composer-and-jazz-educator-jimmy-heath-dies-at-93-videos-photos/
- Published: 2020-01-20T18:10:59+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Jimmy Heath, a saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator and 2003 NEA Jazz Master
who came of age in the bebop era, and did much to sway the course of jazz history
in the ensuing decades, died on Sunday. He was 93. His death was confirmed by his
wife, Mona.**

Miles Davis described Heath as “one of the thoroughbreds.” He was not only a doggedly
individual talent, but also the middle brother in one of jazz’s most storied families,
the Heath Brothers. Percy Heath, the famed bassist, died in 2005. Drummer Albert“
Tootie” Heath is in the midst of a late-career bloom. The love, irreverent humor
and profound musicianship embodied in the Heath Brothers legacy makes Jimmy’s death
all the more deeply felt.

Heath’s especially close friendship with John Coltrane and life-changing early tenures
with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis inspired the title of his 2010 memoir _I Walked
with Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath_ (Temple University Press), co-authored
with Joseph McLaren.

[[

Jimmy Heath at WBGO’s 2011 gala, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar over his shoulder.

The book is a portrait of someone prized for his seasoned tenor voice, lyrical and
varied compositions and deft, swing-drenched writing for multi-horn ensembles — 
sextets up through big bands and even orchestral settings. But to “walk with giants”
implies being in their shadow, and Heath was indeed underappreciated — a phenomenon
he laments in his book as “little guy passed by” (he stood five-foot-three).

James Edward Heath was born on Oct. 25, 1926 in Philadelphia. (The family had moved
up from North Carolina in 1923.) His father, Percy Heath, Sr., played clarinet in
a respected marching band. His mother, Arlethia, sang in the choir of her Baptist
church.

Like all the early beboppers, Heath was reared on the sound of the Swing Era. (At
six he saw Duke Ellington perform.) He left Philadelphia to attend high school back
in North Carolina, in his father’s segregated hometown of Wilmington. By the time
he received his first saxophone, an alto, from his father as a Christmas gift in
1941, he had gravitated toward the sounds of Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter. Two
years later he landed a gig with bandleader Arthur Woodson. He then joined Calvin
Todd’s more rigorous 10-piece band, moving from third alto to first as his abilities
grew.

From 1945 to ‘46 Heath played in the Nat Towles Orchestra, a territory band out 
of Omaha, and toured the Midwest and South extensively. “He was playing bebop way
before a whole bunch of guys were doing it,” recalls Felix Leach in Heath’s memoir.

Heath formed the Jimmy Heath Orchestra in ‘46, featuring John Coltrane on second
alto. He got to know Charlie Parker, who would at times use Heath’s horn on gigs,
and who even sat in with Heath’s band (occasioning the famous anecdote of Coltrane
being so awestruck that he burned his hand with a dwindling cigarette).

In 1947 Heath began working with bebop trumpet great Howard McGhee, taking his first
trip to Europe (his first time on a plane) and gaining entrée to the musical revolution
underway on 52nd Street.

Six members of the Jimmy Heath Orchestra, including Heath, Coltrane and Benny Golson,
would make the transition to Dizzy Gillespie’s historic big band. Heath himself 
joined in September 1949. Paul Gonsalves, who joined Gillespie as well, played a
big role in Heath’s decision to switch to tenor. (Heath also played baritone, flute
and remarkably acute soprano.)

Heath studied orchestration informally with Gillespie colleague Gil Fuller, who 
featured Heath on his uptempo showpiece “The Scene Changes” (a riposte to Gillespie’s“
Things to Come”). Fuller’s band also performed Heath’s forward-looking arrangement
of the standard “Mean to Me,” its rousing trumpet shout chorus spilling with bop
phraseology and spirit. This was Heath’s only documented big-band arrangement until
1995, when he released _Little Man Big Band_. (Another big band outing, _Turn Up
the Heath_, came in 2006.)

Miles Davis hired Heath on tenor and recorded his enduring piece “C.T.A.” (for Connie
Theresa Ang, Heath’s girlfriend) on the landmark 1953 Blue Note session _Miles Davis
Volume 1_. (Davis later recorded Heath’s “Gingerbread Boy” on the album _Miles Smiles_.)
Heath also wrote “The Serpent’s Tooth,” which Davis recorded with Sonny Rollins 
on the 1953 _Collector’s Items_ session (featuring “Charlie Chan,” the pseudonymous
Charlie Parker). In this period Heath also began pivotal associations with trombonist
J.J. Johnson and trumpeter Kenny Dorham.

For seven years Heath succumbed to heroin addiction. (“The drug was the pimp and
I was a simp,” he remarks in his memoir.) Following a 1954 drug arrest he was sentenced
to probation, forcing him to decline out-of-town work, including a major gig with
Max Roach and Clifford Brown. A second arrest followed, landing Heath in prison 
for nearly four and a half years. He was released in May of 1959.

With renewed purpose, he signed with Orrin Keepnews’ Riverside label and made a 
string a timeless recordings, beginning with _The Thumper_ and ending with _On the
Trail_. Heath’s forceful, intricate multipart writing on these records led Keepnews
to hire him as a house arranger for Riverside.

With both horn and pen, he brought a lucid and compelling sound to sessions led 
by Milt Jackson, Julian Priester, Cannonball Adderley, Blue Mitchell, Sam Jones 
and more. His tunes, including “For Minors Only,” “Gemini,” “Bruh Slim,” “24-Hour
Leave,” “Waverley Street,” “Mona’s Mood” and “Picture of Heath,” remain models of
melodic focus and vitality. Years later Heath studied the Schillinger system with
Rudolf Schramm, paving the way for symphonic, choral and mixed-ensemble commissions
such as _The Afro-American Suite of Evolution, Three Ears, Sweet Jazzmobile _and_
Leadership._

In 1987 Heath accepted a teaching position at Queens College, in a brand-new M.A.
jazz program that he did much to shape and solidify. He remained in the position
until 1998. “The reputation of the program worldwide is really attributable to Jimmy’s
work,” declares the late Howard Brofsky, a founder of the program, in Heath’s memoir.

A Queens resident since 1964, Heath also served on the board of the Queens College-
administered Louis Armstrong House Museum, giving back to the community and student
body in myriad ways. His mentorship of countless players, including alto saxophonist
and future faculty member Antonio Hart, set an example for others striving to rekindle
the spark of jazz’s apprenticeship system of old.

Heath is survived by Mona Brown, his wife of nearly 60 years; by their daughter,
Roslyn, and son, Jeffrey; by James Mtume, the noted multi-instrumentalist and songwriter,
his son from a previous relationship; by his brother Albert “Tootie” Heath; and 
by his nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“The Endless Search,” a three-part suite that Heath wrote and recorded in 2007 with
the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, captures something essential about his life’s
work, down to the title. The formal and thematic ingenuity, the scintillating sectional
counterpoint, the uncompromising swing and deep tone of Heath’s tenor solo in Part
I: it’s the sound of a lifetime spent in jazz’s deepest waters, perhaps without 
top glamorous billing but as serious as it gets.

Or consider “Goodbye,” the Gordon Jenkins ballad that Heath arranged for his 1962
date _Triple Threat_, featuring his brothers Percy and Albert with Freddie Hubbard
on trumpet, Julius Watkins on French horn and Cedar Walton on piano.

“Goodbye” was Benny Goodman’s signoff theme on the mid-’30s radio show Let’s Dance.
Heath likely knew it as a child. In his hands it takes on the earthiness and weight
of someone who’s absorbed Ellington, Thelonious Monk and so much else. With his 
patient and elegant tenor, delivering the melody but flying into finely articulated
bop passages as he goes, Heath strives toward a goal above all others: what he calls
in his book “writing melodies to the beat of life.”

![Jimmy Heath performs during the Apollo Walk of Fame Induction Ceremony for Charlie"
Yardbird" Parker at The Apollo Theater on March 30, 2016 in New York City.](https://
i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/202001/GettyImages-
518296574.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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