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| A Love Song |
| Percy Heath |
| első megjelenés éve: 2004 |
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| (2004)
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CD |
| 4.300 Ft
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| 1. | A Love Song
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| 2. | Watergate Blues
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| 3. | Django
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| 4. | Century Rag
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| 5. | No More Weary Blues
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| 6. | Suite for Pop: Prelude/Lament/Rejoice/Celebration
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| 7. | Hanna's Mood
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Jazz
Percy Heath - Arranger, Bass, Cello, Producer
Albert "Tootie" Heath - Drums, Percussion
Jeb Patton - Arranger, Piano
Peter Washington - Bass
* Andy "Bike" Collins - Executive Producer, Producer
* Bill Siegal - Executive Producer
* Carol Friedman - Art Direction, Photography
* Tina Anderson - Design
One of the most respected bassists active at the beginning of the 21st century, Percy Heath was 79 years old when he finally made his first recording as a leader in 2002 and it was long overdue. With a band that includes his brother Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums, bassist Peter Washington, and a fine young pianist, Jeb Patton, the leader has a few surprises in store. His first track is a poignant original ballad, "A Love Song," which he plays unaccompanied on cello. When the band joins him for an updated treatment of Percy's decades-old "Watergate Blues," he sticks to cello, bringing to mind the genius of an earlier player who doubled on bass and cello with equal skill, Oscar Pettiford. He was so well-versed with John Lewis' beautiful ballad "Django" from having performed it countless times as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet that he decided to try a different approach. His unaccompanied bass starts the piece, with Tootie's brushwork joining him a bit later, and finally, the pianist as well. "Salute for Pop" is a four-part suite dedicated to the Heaths' father, a moving tribute to a man who sired a jazz dynasty. Sir Roland Hanna's marvelous "Century Rag" (an obscure work that appears on his CD Round Midnight) was arranged by Patton; it opens up considerably when Percy's bass and Tootie's drums make their entrance. Patton, who studied under Hanna, honors his late teacher with a moving, bittersweet tribute called "Hanna's Mood." This brilliant release demands a prompt sequel.
--- Ken Dryden, All Music Guide
Percy Heath
Active Decades: '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Apr 30, 1923 in Wilmington, North Carolina
Died: Apr 28, 2005 in Southampton, NY
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Bop, Cool, Hard Bop
A product of one of jazz's most illustrious families, Percy Heath and his sublime, swinging bass served as the cornerstone of the Modern Jazz Quartet for over four decades. Heath was born in Wilmington, NC, on April 23, 1930. The second of four children, he was raised in Philadelphia, receiving his first instrument, a violin, at the age of eight. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944, and assigned to fly P-4s and P-47s as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen. Heath managed to avoid combat, and after World War II ended, he purchased a standup bass and enrolled in Philadelphia's Granoff School of Music. After a stint behind pianist Red Garland, he signed on with the house band at the local Down Beat Club. There he met bebop trumpeter Howard McGhee, and by 1947, Heath and his saxophonist brother Jimmy were touring as members of McGhee's sextet, appearing the following year at the premiere Festival International de Jazz in Paris. The Heath brothers relocated to New York City in 1949, and there Percy collaborated with a who's who of postwar jazz icons including Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Sonny Rollins. From 1950 to 1952, he and Jimmy reunited as members of Dizzy Gillespie's sextet.
The roots of the Modern Jazz Quartet lie in Gillespie's sextet as well. Pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke met in 1946 as members of Gillespie's then-current lineup, and in 1951 formed the MJQ, originally dubbed the Milt Jackson Quartet in an effort to appease bookers in search of a formidable headliner. When Brown -- Heath's primary influence -- left the group in 1952, Heath was invited to take his place, with Jackson's top billing shelved in favor of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Honing a subtle, sophisticated bop aesthetic shaped by the structure and formalism of classical composition, the MJQ's music proved so intricate and demanding that shortly after joining the group, Heath was forced to study under bass titan Charles Mingus to improve his intonation. The MJQ first found favor in Europe, and when Clarke settled there permanently in 1955, drummer Connie Kay was named his replacement, cementing a lineup that would remain unchanged for close to two decades. Whenever the group was temporarily inactive, Heath returned to his busy session schedule, by his own count playing on more than 300 LPs over the course of his career. In contrast to the elegant restraint that typified his MJQ playing, his freelance work captured the bassist at his most dynamic and propulsive.
Financial considerations forced the Modern Jazz Quartet to dissolve in 1974, at which time Heath teamed with brother Jimmy and their youngest sibling, drummer Albert, in the Heath Brothers. Boasting a more freewheeling, mainstream sound than the MJQ, the vehicle also allowed Percy to explore the cello, which he retuned to bass intervals. The Heath Brothers recorded and toured intermittently over the next two decades, their work interrupted in 1983 when the MJQ re-formed to accept a lucrative offer to tour Japan. The group reconvened often in the years to follow, with Albert Heath assuming the drummer's seat following Kay's 1994 death. In 1997 Percy announced his intention to retire from the grind of touring, and the MJQ quietly dissolved. Jackson died in 1999, Lewis two years later. Although Heath occasionally performed with his brothers, his twilight years were largely spent fishing in and around his home on Long Island. In 2004, the small Daddy Jazz label released A Love Song, the 81-year-old Heath's first and last recording as a bandleader. He died following a struggle with bone cancer on April 28, 2005.
---Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide |
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