Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Percy Heath, the bassist for the Modern Jazz Quartet and oldest brother of the jazz family the Heath Brothers, died Thursday in Southampton, N.Y., of bone cancer. He was 81. Amazingly, Heath’s two muscial brothers, saxophonist Jimmy and drummer Tootie, performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Thursday, honoring their brother’s musical legacy.
As the bass player in the Modern Jazz Quartet for more than 40 years, Heath’s immortality is guaranteed. The oldest brother in a remarkable musical family that includes Jimmy (saxophone) and Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums), Percy was born in Wilmington, N.C., on April 30, 1923, and was raised in Philadelphia. He started on violin, then switched to bass in 1946, which he studied at the Granoff School of Music. The following year, Heath was working in New York with his brother, Jimmy, in trumpeter Howard McGhee’s band. After that he played with Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, J.J. Johnson, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown and Horace Silver.
In 1951, he replaced Ray Brown in a quartet led by pianist John Lewis and vibist Milt Jackson, which the following year became the Modern Jazz Quartet. Heath’s elegant bass lines and logical solos have anchored that esteemed group for more than 40 years, except for a period during the 1970s when the group disbanded. In 1975, Percy started playing piccolo bass in a family band with Jimmy, Tootie and Stanley Cowell called the Heath Brothers.
Recommended recordings: Marchin’ On (Strata East); Passing Thru (Columbia).
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
