THE LANDFILL CHRONICLES, Vol. 2: The Jimmy Heath Continuum—Chapter 2, Part 1: The Bros Blindfold Test

By Dan Ouellette

In the second chapter of the second volume of THE LANDFILL CHRONICLES, Jimmy Heath shines on. My first personal encounter with Jimmy came in 2002 when I produced a live Blindfold Test with all three Heath brothers — Percy, Jimmy and Tootie — at the Monterey Jazz Festival. That’s included here in the first part of the three-part chapter.

Eight years later, DownBeat assigned me to travel to his home in Queens to do a long-form cover feature on Jimmy. The entirety will be Part 2, published later this week. On the heals two days later, Part 3 will feature Jimmy posthumously receiving the DownBeat Hall of Fame honor and a short discussion on his final album.

A note: The first volume of THE LANDFILL CHRONICLES will be available in the first of April via Amazon. A photo of the cover will appear below and conclude this chapter.

THE CLASSIC HEATH BROTHERS LIVE BLINDFOLD TEST (2002)

Three’s a crowd? Not when the Heath brothers hang together. When the three bros (bassist Percy, 79, tenor saxophonist Jimmy, 75, and drummer Tootie, 67) took the stage at the live Down Beat Blindfold Test in Dizzy’s Den at 2002’s Monterey Jazz Festival, they had the large crowd in stitches with their wicked humor, highly opinionated observations and articulate critiques. But above all, the trio displayed a fraternal camaraderie — they enjoyed riffing with each other and thoroughly engaged the audience. At the beginning of the session, Tootie quipped, “Percy’s gonna mess around and get a television show out of this.” If a scout had been in attendance, the Heaths would be starring in a second season replacement program right now.

John Lewis

“Lyonhead” (from Kansas City Breaks, Red Baron, 1992, rec’d 1982) Lewis, piano; Frank Wess, flute; Howard Collins, guitar; Joe Kennedy, Jr., violin; Marc Johnson, bass; Shelly Manne, drums.

TOOTIE: (immediately) I hate it. Get that off. (fakes snoring) That’s the Turtle Island String Quartet and some other guys (laughs). (When the piano swing part hits) Oooh, yeah.

JIMMY: John Lewis, Percy Heath and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

PERCY: That does sound a little Quartet-ish once they got going. That is John Lewis.

TOOTIE: Yep, that’s Lady Lewis. Is that Stephane? I think they were all in Europe someplace and drunk when they made this.

JIMMY: Frank Wess too. It’s all right, but it took too long to get to the swing.

PERCY: I wouldn’t put this down. It’s nice music. But it was a little too elaborate in the front.

TOOTIE: I hated it. It had no feel. Who’s on bass?

PERCY: It wasn’t me. I wasn’t there. That’s Marc Johnson? Oh, yeah, that was John’s boy back when he was the musical director of Monterey. Who’s on drums? Is that you, Tootie?

TOOTIE: Oh, no. I made a lot of ’em that wasn’t nothing, but this wasn’t one of ‘em.

Stefon Harris & Jacky Terrasson

“My Foolish Heart” (from Kindred, Blue Note, 2001) Harris, marimbas; Terrasson, piano; Tarus Mateen, bass; Idris Muhammad, drums.

TOOTIE: It’s Milt Johnson and Dave Blubleck (laughs).

PERCY: It’s Bobby [Hutcherson].

TOOTIE: These two guys can’t decide whose solo it is.

PERCY: That’s called interplay.

JIMMY: Or counterpoint.

TOOTIE: This is awful. I hate it. Take it off. I hate it.

PERCY: People express themselves the way they see fit. It’s a xylophone or marimba instead of vibes. That was interesting to combine with the piano. I’m not going to criticize a record I’ve never heard before. But I couldn’t hear the drums in this mix. I wanted to hear more accents. And the bass player was like in a monotone. I wanted to hear more accents from him too.

JIMMY: Is this Gary Burton? I can’t identify these guys. They were doing collective improvisation which goes back to Dixieland and New Orleans music, just modernized. But it’s not my cup of tea. It’s not bad, but I wouldn’t buy it.

PERCY: Me neither, but I would listen to it.

TOOTIE: I wouldn’t buy it or listen to it. And I wouldn’t recommend it. I hated it. There was no groove in it. I’m a drummer. I like having a beat in the music. That’s why I listen to the kids playing hip hop because they have a serious beat.

JIMMY: And it didn’t have a melody. I’m a saxophonist and a single-note player and I like melody. You start off with the melody and then improvise off of that. This just started with the improvisation. That was Stefon Harris? Oh, yeah, I know him, but I don’t like this tune.

The Benny Goodman Quartet

“Say It Isn’t So” (from Together Again!, Bluebird, 2002, rec’d 1963) Goodman, clarinet; Teddy Wilson, piano; Lionel Hampton, vibes; Gene Krupa, drums.

TOOTIE: I love this and I don’t even know who it is.

JIMMY: And it’s got a melody: “Say It Isn’t So.”

TOOTIE: From jump street, you can hear…the…beat. Hey, there’s Lionel Hampton.

JIMMY: And Teddy Wilson. It’s Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton.

TOOTIE: Now that’s jazz. There’s nobody with a doctorate in symphonic music playing here. This comes from here (pats his chest). All those doctors are OK with me as long as they’re the kind who are in the hospital.

PERCY: These are the real guys. But I can’t hear the drummer.

JIMMY: The drummer was miked down in those days. I knew all these guys, from that generation. I like this because it puts you in a certain mood. It’s romantic. You don’t have to intellectualize this to understand it. You feel it.

TOOTIE: I like the song and the beat.

PERCY: That was wonderful. I enjoyed it. I knew all those guys too. I admired all of them. The Heath family grew up listening to music like this, so this was perfect for me.

The Misha Mengelberg Quartet

“Hypochristmutreefuzz” (from Four in One, Songlines, 2001) Mengelberg, piano; Dave Douglas, trumpet; Brad Jones, bass; Han Bennick, drums, percussion.

TOOTIE (immediately): [The trumpeter] is at home practicing. This is right out of the book. This has a beat, but it’s too fast. You can’t pat your foot to it, you can’t dance to it, so what good is it?

PERCY: I don’t know, but that piano keeps going on and on and on.

TOOTIE: And the trumpet sounds like a mosquito. I sure hope these guys aren’t in the audience because we’re gonna get beat up once they hear what we have to say. This was annoying. It sounds like a schoolboy practicing scales.

PERCY: This guy could play the trumpet. But everyone who plays doesn’t necessarily qualify as a jazz musician. You’ve got to convey some kind of experience. Maybe he hasn’t had much except in school. But as a musician matures, he knows what to leave out. You have all those notes to use, but you choose which ones to play to tell a little story.

JIMMY: Was that Dave Douglas? Yeah, he’s the media wonder, the favorite. They rank him as being very special. But I find his playing to be emotionless. It’s like Tootie said. This sounds like he’s practicing exercises. But I’m spoiled because I remember Fats Navarro, Dizzy and Miles. They had technique, but they also had feeling and emotion. I hear Clark Terry play one note and I know it’s him. This guy played hundreds of notes and I didn’t know who he was. But I read that Dave Douglas is the boy wonder now in jazz.

TOOTIE: That’s him and Kenny G. They’re together. They got a group.

JIMMY: They have the media in control. I just don’t know what the people get when they hear them. Maybe they’re controlled by the media. They believe what they read instead of what they hear. In my generation, we went to the bars and taverns and approved the music ourselves. No one had to write in DownBeat and tell us who was good and who wasn’t.

Illinois Jacquet

“Illinois Goes to Chicago” (from Savoy 60th Anniversary — Timeless, Savoy Jazz, 2002, rec’d 1946) Jacquet, tenor saxophone; Emmett Berry, trumpet; Bill Doggett, piano; Freddie Green, guitar; John Simmons, bass; Shadow Wilson, drums.

All (immediately): Oh, oh.

TOOTIE: Now, those are our boys. That’s it.

PERCY: That’s sweet. This is a good one.

TOOTIE (at the tenor solo): That’s better than sex right there.

PERCY: Or good accompaniment.

JIMMY: Sounds like the Beast. Illinois Jacquet. (At the trumpet solo) that sounds like Sweets.

TOOTIE: No, it’s Russell Jacquet. No? It’s Emmett Berry?

JIMMY: I never heard this. But I knew who it was right off. I like this. It swings and has a nice melody. Illinois Jacquet has always been one of my favorite saxophonists. I like his breath control, the way he sings and sustains notes. He has a beautiful sound and he’s always in tune. He’s a great saxophone player. I heard him just a few weeks ago playing at a dance at Lincoln Center. He was sitting down when he was playing, but, man, could he play.

Von Freeman

“If I Should Lose You” (from The Improviser, Premonition, 2002) Freeman, tenor saxophone.

JIMMY (after a few guesses): It’s Von Freeman? Oh, wow, he’s 80. He’s got 80 years of experience and expression that he gave in that one song. I like this so much. I like his tone, his expression. He took some liberties that a younger player would take. Von is free of the chords. He’s been in Chicago for all these years, back there with Gene Ammons. He has that warm tenor saxophone sound. To play this song as complete as he did without accompaniment is quite a challenge. I’d give him tops.

PERCY: It was beautiful. The first few notes sounded Hawkish to me with the big tone. But some of his notes and the way he played chords was not Coleman. Von is talented. So is his whole family.

TOOTIE: This definitely had a beat. I could feel it. And I could identify with the melody. His sound was warm and wonderful. He fooled me because I thought he was a younger guy as he did some things that the younger kids are doing today, like playing outside the chords, the melody and even the key. The name of the tune is “If I Should Lose You” and it sounded like he was losing it on purpose there for a minute.

PERCY: But he found it again.

Satako Fujii

“Get Along Well With…” (from Bell the Cat!, Tokuma Japan, 2002) Fujii, piano; Mark Dresser, bass; Jim Black, drums.

TOOTIE: They’re drunk, all of ’em. That ain’t no beat. It sounds like the drummer is building a house.

PERCY: This damn music, you can’t dance to it. It’s abstract.

TOOTIE: It’s abscess. All of a sudden now it’s off meter.

JIMMY: They’re in a funny meter. The piano is coming in with some Frankenstein stuff.

TOOTIE (to the audience): I’d like to see you all dance to this.

PERCY: They’d trip and break their necks.

JIMMY: Yeah, squeeze her real tight and try to move to this.

TOOTIE: That’s Art Blakey on piano.

JIMMY: I can’t tell who it is, but I can sure tell you who it ain’t.

PERCY: Oh, it’s just some guys having fun. They’re enjoying themselves.

JIMMY: Yeah, right. It’s like they’re playing in a garage. I think this is anti-music. It’s by someone who’s not in love with the music. Who is this? It’s Satako Fujii? What category do you put this in? (an audience member responds) New music? Oh, really. You mean new music using the same scales and instruments? That would be a surprise to Duke Ellington. We’ve worked with some great Japanese drummers and musicians, but she is not one of them.

TOOTIE: Tonight if you come to our concert, we promise we will not play this song.

NEXT: Vol. 2, Chapter 2, Part 2 — The Jimmy Heath Continuum — A House Visit