Jazz Articles about Jimmy Heath

May 2008

by AAJ Staff
May 5, 2008

Lock 10 at Joe's Pub

Kathy Hendrickson's play Lock 10 is the story of a white guitarist in the 1930s seeking to leave the family business to go on tour with an integrated band. Staged as a period radio play, with actors playing actors voicing roles, it makes for an odd telling. The actors aren't tethered to microphones as they would be in an actual radio production, but they don't quite inhabit their meta-roles either. Strange as well was the ...

Jimmy Heath Orchestra: Really Big!

by Joel Roberts
October 17, 2007

The ten-piece band on this invigorating 1960 Riverside release by Jimmy Heath wasn't “really big, but the talent level of the artists certainly was. How about Clark Terry on trumpet, Nat Adderley on cornet, brother Cannonball on alto sax and either Tommy Flanagan or Cedar Walton on piano? Plus, all three Heath brothers (Jimmy on tenor sax, Percy on bass and Tootie on drums) recording together for one of the first times ever on Jimmy's second date as a leader ...

The Jimmy Heath Big Band: Turn Up the Heath

by Jack Bowers
December 11, 2006

Back in the early '90s I asked tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath if he planned a followup to his Grammy-nominated album, Little Man Big Band (Verve, 1992). As I recall, he smiled politely but didn't really answer the question. Now he has--and with an exclamation point. Describing how his latest superb album, Turn Up the Heath, came about, Jimmy writes, “The Jazz Masters award [from NEA and IAJE] in 2003 made it possible. As to why: “...there were so many orchestrations ...

Freddie Hubbard: Hub Cap (RVG Edition)

by Robert Gilbert
February 24, 2003

As was customary with Blue Note releases during the 1950s and '60s, the names of the musicians performing on Hub Cap are listed on the album’s front cover. The name of Freddie Hubbard, the leader, is--not surprisingly--most prominent. However, the factor that elevates Hub Cap a notch above similarly styled LPs released at the time is the fifth name listed under Hubbard’s: drummer “Philly” Joe Jones.Within a minute of the opening title song, Jones has made his presence ...

Freddie Hubbard: Hub Cap (RVG Edition)

by Richton Guy Thomas
January 26, 2003

Freddie Hubbard brought a beautiful tone and an instinct for swing to Hub Cap. This record came out in 1961, three years before Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch and four years before Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage : two significant titles in the library of America's improvised music which feature a consequential role by Hubbard.Freddie Hubbard leads a particularly talented sextet on this reissue. Four of the six compositions are Hubbard originals; two numbers were composed by Cedar Walton, ...

Don Sleet: All Members

by Derek Taylor
March 1, 2002

Jazz, like any commercial art form, is a proving ground populated by far more practitioners than actually make the cut. The analogy of an iceberg is apropos. For every musician whose talent rises above the sea of public opinion’s surface there are literally thousands of others that toil away in obscurity beneath the waves. In the spring of 61’ Don Sleet seemed set to become one of the chosen few situated for stardom. Formidable brass chops sharpened in gigs as ...

Freddie Hubbard & Jimmy Heath: Jam Gems

by John Sharpe
March 1, 2001

Jam Gems is Label M’s latest offering from their ongoing series of previously unearthed recordings taped at Baltimore’s Famous Ballroom by The Left Bank Jazz Society. Formed in 1964, this group often booked Sunday afternoon jam sessions at various venues. However, the tapes were never released until producer Joel Dorn struck a deal to issue the performances on his new label. This session from June 13, 1965, captures trumpeter Freddie Hubbard shortly before he altered his hard-bop style ...