Percy Heath
Encyclopedia
Percy Heath was an American
jazz
bassist, brother to tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath
and drummer
Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers
in 1975. Heath also worked with Miles Davis
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Charlie Parker
, Wes Montgomery
and Thelonious Monk
.
and spent his childhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. His father played the clarinet
and his mother sang in the church choir
. He started playing violin
at age 8 and also sang locally. He was drafted into the Army in 1944, becoming a member of the Tuskegee Airmen
, but saw no combat.
Deciding after the war to go into music, he bought a stand-up bass and enrolled in the Granoff School of Music
in Philadelphia. Soon he was playing in the city's jazz clubs with leading artists. In Chicago in 1948, he recorded with his brother on a Milt Jackson
album as members of the Howard McGhee
Sextet. After moving to New York in the late 1940s, Percy and Jimmy Heath found work with Dizzy Gillespie
's groups. Around this time, he was also a member of Joe Morris
's band, together with Johnny Griffin
.
It transpired that other members of the Gillespie big band
, pianist John Lewis
, drummer Kenny Clarke
, Milt Jackson, and bassist Ray Brown
, decided to form a permanent group; they were already becoming known for their interludes during Gillespie band performances that, as AllMusic.com says, gave the rest of the band much-needed set breaks---that would eventually become known as the Modern Jazz Quartet
. When Brown left the group to join his wife Ella Fitzgerald
's band, Heath joined and the group was officially begun in 1952, with Connie Kay
replacing Clarke soon afterward. The MJQ played regularly until it disbanded in 1974; it reformed in 1981 and last recorded in 1993.
In 1975, Percy Heath and his brothers formed the Heath Brothers
with pianist Stanley Cowell
. He would sometimes play the cello
instead of the bass in these later performances.
In 2003, at the age of 80, he released his first album as bandleader through the Daddy Jazz label. The album, titled A Love Song, garnered rave reviews and served as a fitting coda for Heath's illustrious career. It featured brother Albert Heath on drums, bassist Peter Washington
and pianist Jeb Patton.
He died, after a second bout with bone cancer, two days short of his 82nd birthday, in Southampton, New York
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bassist, brother to tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers
Heath Brothers
The Heath Brothers was an American jazz group, formed in 1975 by the brothers Jimmy , Percy , and Albert "Tootie" Heath ; and pianist Stanley Cowell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tony Purrone and Jimmy's son Mtume joined the group later...
in 1975. Heath also worked with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...
and Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
.
Biography
Heath was born in Wilmington, North CarolinaWilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
and spent his childhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. His father played the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and his mother sang in the church choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
. He started playing violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
at age 8 and also sang locally. He was drafted into the Army in 1944, becoming a member of the Tuskegee Airmen
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they were the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps....
, but saw no combat.
Deciding after the war to go into music, he bought a stand-up bass and enrolled in the Granoff School of Music
Granoff School of Music
The Granoff School of Music is a music school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, founded by Isadore Granoff , a Ukrainian immigrant.Alumni of Granoff include Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Fortune and John Coltrane...
in Philadelphia. Soon he was playing in the city's jazz clubs with leading artists. In Chicago in 1948, he recorded with his brother on a Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
album as members of the Howard McGhee
Howard McGhee
Howard McGhee was one of the very first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for lightning-fast fingers and very high notes...
Sextet. After moving to New York in the late 1940s, Percy and Jimmy Heath found work with Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
's groups. Around this time, he was also a member of Joe Morris
Joe Morris
Joe Morris is the name of:* Joe Morris , British film writer, producer and director. * Joe Morris , American jazz guitarist * Joe Morris , American studio drummer...
's band, together with Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
.
It transpired that other members of the Gillespie big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, pianist John Lewis
John Lewis (pianist)
John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...
, drummer Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
, Milt Jackson, and bassist Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
, decided to form a permanent group; they were already becoming known for their interludes during Gillespie band performances that, as AllMusic.com says, gave the rest of the band much-needed set breaks---that would eventually become known as the Modern Jazz Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet
The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson , John Lewis , Percy Heath , and Kenny Clarke . Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955...
. When Brown left the group to join his wife Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
's band, Heath joined and the group was officially begun in 1952, with Connie Kay
Connie Kay
Connie Kay was an American jazz drummer.Kay was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet from 1955 until the group's dissolution in 1974...
replacing Clarke soon afterward. The MJQ played regularly until it disbanded in 1974; it reformed in 1981 and last recorded in 1993.
In 1975, Percy Heath and his brothers formed the Heath Brothers
Heath Brothers
The Heath Brothers was an American jazz group, formed in 1975 by the brothers Jimmy , Percy , and Albert "Tootie" Heath ; and pianist Stanley Cowell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tony Purrone and Jimmy's son Mtume joined the group later...
with pianist Stanley Cowell
Stanley Cowell
Stanley Cowell is an American jazz pianist and founder of the Strata-East Records label. He played with Roland Kirk while studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and later with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz...
. He would sometimes play the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
instead of the bass in these later performances.
In 2003, at the age of 80, he released his first album as bandleader through the Daddy Jazz label. The album, titled A Love Song, garnered rave reviews and served as a fitting coda for Heath's illustrious career. It featured brother Albert Heath on drums, bassist Peter Washington
Peter Washington
Peter Washington is a jazz double bassist. He initially played classical bass and played with the Westchester Community Symphony at 14. Later he worked with electric bass and in rock bands. He went on to study English at the University of California, Berkeley...
and pianist Jeb Patton.
He died, after a second bout with bone cancer, two days short of his 82nd birthday, in Southampton, New York
Southampton (town), New York
The Town of Southampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, U.S., partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town had a total population of 54,712...
.
Discography
A Love Song (2003) with Jeb Patton piano, Peter Washington Bass, Albert "Tootie" Heath DrumsAs sideman
With Miles DavisMiles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
- Bags' GrooveBags' GrooveBags' Groove is a jazz album recorded by Miles Davis in 1954 for Prestige Records. Both takes of the title track come from a session on December 24, 1954 . The rest of the album was recorded earlier in the year, on 29 June. Bags' Groove is a jazz album recorded by Miles Davis in 1954 for Prestige...
(1954) - Walkin'Walkin'-Performers:*Miles Davis - Trumpet*Lucky Thompson - Tenor saxophone *J. J. Johnson - Trombone *David Schildkraut - Alto saxophone *Horace Silver - Piano*Percy Heath - Bass*Kenny Clarke - drums...
(1954) - Blue HazeBlue HazeBlue Haze is an album recorded in 1953 and 1954 by Miles Davis for Prestige Records. The first track on the album is from the 3 April 1954 session which resulted in half of the album Walkin...
(1954) - Miles Davis Volume 1Miles Davis Volume 1Miles Davis Volume 1 is an album which compiles tracks recorded by Miles Davis for Blue Note Records on 9 May 1952 and 6 March 1954. The music has been issued in a variety of formats over the years - the track listing below is that of the 2001 CD reissue containing all the music recorded at the...
(1955) - Miles Davis Volume 2Miles Davis Volume 2Miles Davis Volume 2 is an album which compiles tracks recorded for Blue Note Records on 20 April 1953 by Miles Davis. Tracks 1-6 were originally released on a 10" LP as BLP 5022, the track listing below is that of the 2001 reissue containing all the music recorded at the session...
(1955) - Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1958)
- Cannonball" Adderley Know What I Mean with Bill Evans 1961