A Little More Warmth From Jimmy Heath

We have departed a bit from our common observe of embedding a video further
into a posting so that you would have a chance to hear Jimmy Heath and his music
before studying about it. Although not a full large band, the ten-piece group on the
album - which included Cannonball Adderley on alto and Pat Patrick on baritone
saxophone supplied Old Town by Heath Heath with a nice platform, underpinned
by the baritone and the darker brass shadings of Tom Mclntosh's trombone and Dick
Berg's French horn (both Percy and Albert had been in the rhythm section, with both
Tommy Flanagan or Cedar Walton).
Built across the three Heath and the 2 Adderley brothers, it's a unit with a great deal
of persona and presence. Unique Jazz Classics OJCCD 1854 Heath; Wynton Kelly (p);
Kenny Burrell (g); Paul Chambers (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath (d). Authentic Jazz
Classics OJCCD 1909-2 Heath; Freddie Hubbard (t); Julius Watkins (frhn); Cedar
Walton (p); Percy Heath (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath (d). A dry run for the Heath
Brothers undertaking and another object lesson in easy methods to give a relatively
small unit an expansive sound.
First, we don't treat jazz as music in a vacuum, perpetuating itself as a baton
passed from genius to genius; we see it, fairly, as a mirrored image of broader
cultural, political, social, and financial factors, and try and line up the essential
moments in its progress with historical occasions that it reflected and influenced.
Second, this book requires neither musical data nor ability (solely a predisposition
for the enjoyment of music and the creativeness to really feel its expressive
energy), however it always retains one eye firmly cocked on illustrative jazz
masterworks.
The dates which produced The Quota, recorded on 14 April, 1961, and Triple Risk,
from 4 January, 1962, both featured a sextet, with Heath's tenor accompanied by
hotshot young trumpet star Freddie Hubbard and the inevitable French horn,
expertly played as ever by Julius Watkins, surely one of the best-known exponent of
the horn in jazz (and one of many few to record as a leader on the instrument, for
Blue Word in 1954), and a rhythm section of Cedar Walton and the opposite two
Heath brothers.
Jimmy Heath was born on 25 October, 1926, in Philadelphia, and is the center
brother of the three (Percy, the eldest, was born on 30 April 1932, in Wilmington,
North Carolina, while Albert first noticed the light of day on 31 May, 1935,
additionally in Philadelphia). Heath and Coltrane fashioned a close relationship at
this time, often training together (Lewis Porter describes some of their routines
in John Coltrane: His Life and Music) in addition to socializing.