Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jimmy Heath: Love Letter

4

Jimmy Heath: Love Letter

By

View read count
Jimmy Heath: Love Letter
Love Letter is the final album to be made by saxophonist Jimmy Heath, who passed in January 2020 aged 93. It was completeted just a month earlier. The title is well chosen: the album is a love letter to jazz, a love letter to ballads, and a love letter to Heath's surviving family members, friends and audience. Soulful and luminous, it is everything one could hope for in the last will and testament of a jazz master.

Heath performed on more than a hundred albums during his career and worked with practically every jazz giant of his generation (and more than a few from succeeding generations). These included Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Kenny Clarke, J.J. Johnson, Howard McGhee, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley and Philly Joe Jones. And that was just between 1947 and 1951. There were six more decades to go.

On Love Letter, Heath plays tenor on seven tracks and soprano on one. He is accompanied by a multi- generational lineup comprising pianist Kenny Barron, guitarist Russell Malone, vibraphonist Monte Croft, bassist David Wong and drummer Lewis Nash. Gregory Porter and Cecile McLorin Salvant add vocals to Gordon Parks' "Don't Misunderstand" and Mal Waldron's "Left Alone" respectively. Wynton Marsalis is featured on Kenny Dorham's "La Mesha."

Heath was a gifted composer and three of his pieces are included on Love Letter: "Fashion Or Passion," from a 2004 Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Commission, "Inside Your Heart," from a 2010 project with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and "Ballad From Upper Neighbor's Suite," from 1995.

As an album, Love Letter ranks among Heath's best. As a swansong, it is unbeatable.

Track Listing

Ballad From Upper Neighbor’s Suite; Left Alone; Inside Your Heart; Fashion Or Passion; Con Alma; Don’t Misunderstand; La Mesha; Don’t Explain.

Personnel

Jimmy Heath
saxophone, tenor
Monte Croft
vibraphone
Additional Instrumentation

Gregory Porter: vocals (6); Cécile McLorin Salvant: vocals (8); Wynton Marsalis: trumpet (8).

Album information

Title: Love Letter | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Verve Music Group

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.