EGN NEWS DESK
Albert Heath, a virtuoso jazz drummer who collaborated with luminaries like John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone and Herbie Hancock; carried out and recorded along with his older brothers, Percy and Jimmy; and for just a few years performed alongside Percy in one of many nice jazz ensembles, the Modern Jazz Quartet, died on Wednesday in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 88.
The reason for his dying, it a hospital, was leukemia, his stepson Curt Flood Jr. mentioned.
Mr. Heath, who was referred to as Tootie, was primarily a bebop and arduous bop drummer however was adept in a variety of types. In 2020, the National Endowment for the Arts named him a Jazz Master, an honor that his brothers had acquired earlier.
He accepted the information with a mix of humility and self-confidence.
“I’m honored that they acknowledged me,” he informed The Santa Fe New Mexican, “nevertheless it doesn’t imply something as a result of I’ve at all times thought I used to be a grasp.”
Mr. Heath’s profession had its origins along with his household in Philadelphia, the place his father performed clarinet in an Elks marching band, his mom sang in a church choir and his brother Jimmy, a saxophonist, introduced members of his massive band — together with his fellow saxophonist John Coltrane — to the Heaths’ home.
“They’d have part rehearsals in our dad and mom’ home as a result of it wasn’t sufficiently big to have the entire band in there, 18 items or so,” Mr. Heath mentioned in an interview with the web site All About Jazz in 2015. “So the trumpets would come in the future, the reeds the subsequent. The drummers and the bassists could be there a 3rd day.”
His profession started early. As a teen, Tootie — he was given the nickname by his paternal grandfather as a result of he cherished tutti-frutti ice cream — performed a weeklong gig as a part of a pickup ensemble backing Thelonious Monk on the Blue Note in Philadelphia. Monk didn’t inform the musicians what he wished them to play.
“He by no means circled and mentioned hi there,” Mr. Heath mentioned in an interview for the N.E.A. in 2021. “He by no means circled and mentioned, ‘Thank you,’ ‘Goodbye,’ ‘I hated you guys’ or ‘I appreciated you guys,’ or no matter, and I by no means heard him say a phrase within the microphone to anyone.”
In 1957, when Coltrane was working with Mr. Heath, the pianist Red Garland and the bassist Paul Chambers at a membership in Philadelphia, he employed them for what turned the album “Coltrane,” his first as a frontrunner.
Over the subsequent two years, Mr. Heath started a prolific profession as a session musician, showing on albums by Mr. Garland (“Groovy”), the saxophonist Cannonball Adderley (“Cannonball Takes Charge”), Coltrane (“Lush Life”) and Ms. Simone (“Little Girl Blue”).
He went on to carry out with the trombonist J.J. Johnson’s band and, briefly, with the Jazztet, a sextet led by the trumpeter Art Farmer and the tenor saxophonist Benny Golson.
Reviewing a Jazztet efficiency in San Francisco in 1961, Russ Wilson of The Oakland Tribune described Mr. Heath’s drumming as “extraordinary.” He added, “Besides quick arms and wonderful rhythm, he’s graced with the great style that marks nice drummers and is evidenced by their willingness to subordinate their sound to that of the group.”
Mr. Heath left for Europe in 1965 and stayed there for a decade, dwelling in Sweden and Denmark. He discovered extra alternatives to carry out there and in Western Europe than he had within the United States, the place he needed to take care of racism, Mr. Flood mentioned in a telephone interview. In Europe, Mr. Flood mentioned, “He was handled like a rock star.”
He returned typically sufficient to develop into a part of Mr. Hancock’s sextet within the late Nineteen Sixties and to report two albums with him, “The Prisoner” and “Fat Albert Rotunda.”
In 1970, Mr. Heath launched his first album as a frontrunner, “Kawaida” (Mr. Hancock and Jimmy Heath had been among the many musicians who accompanied him). Three years later he launched one other, “Kwanza (The First).” His different albums included “Tootie’s Tempo” (2013) and “Philadelphia Beat” (2014), with Ethan Iverson on piano and Ben Street on bass.
Albert William Heath was born on May 31, 1935, in Philadelphia. His father, Percy Sr., was an auto mechanic. His mom, Arlethia (Wall) Heath, was a hairdresser. His brother Jimmy, who was eight years older, was his first music teacher, however he additionally took classes from Specs Wright, the drummer in Jimmy’s band.
Albert, Jimmy and Percy had performed collectively every now and then, however in 1975 they made their partnership official after they shaped the Heath Brothers, initially with Stanley Cowell on piano.
Their freewheeling model of jazz was captured on a number of albums, together with “Marchin’ On” (1975), “Passin’ Thru (1978) and “Straight Ahead” (2009), which was launched after Percy died in 2005.
In a assessment of the brothers’ efficiency, with Jeb Patton on piano, on the Village Vanguard in 2003, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times wrote, “Albert cultivated a solo from the barest rustling, starting with tambourine and bass drum alone; it represented the antithesis of most drummers’ showcases, by no means getting loud.”
Albert joined the Modern Jazz Quartet, of which Percy was a founding member, in 1994, after the quartet’s longtime drummer Connie Kay died. He remained till the quartet broke up in 1997.
In addition to Mr. Flood, Mr. Heath, who lived in Santa Fe, is survived by his spouse, Beverly (Collins) Johnson Heath, whom he married in 1976, after her divorces from the baseball participant Curt Flood and Richard Johnson; two sons, Jens Heath, from his marriage to Anita Petersson, which resulted in divorce in 1974, and Jonas Liedberg, from his relationship with Margaretta Liedberg; two stepdaughters, Shelly and Debbie Flood; one other stepson, Scott Flood; a sister, Elizabeth Heath, 9 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Over the final 25 years, Mr. Heath led a trio, with Mr. Iverson and Mr. Street, and the Whole Drum Truth, an all-drum ensemble with a rotating membership.
“You ought to take note of music from all world wide that use completely different drums,” Mr. Heath informed The New Mexican in 2020. “There are quite a lot of several types of people music and music of various nations that drummers ought to be astute to.”
