R.I.P. Albert "Tootie" Heath
A eulogy for the jazz-drumming great. (Albert "Tootie" Heath (May 31, 1935, April 3, 2024)
Albert "Tootie" Heath has died. The jazz drumming great was a month off his 89th birthday.
He was still playing — brilliantly too. Philadelphia Beat, recorded a decade ago, with Ethan Iverson and Ben Street is a gem, with the then-nearly 80 year old Heath in full command, sounding as good as he ever did. But that wasn’t my introduction to his work, just the last great album I experienced by him.
I first heard him on a couple of amazing John Coltrane albums from the late 50s “Sheets of Sound” era, (Coltrane, Lush Life). He was a dab hand with the ballads, he could play bop and swing; masterful with sticks and brushes. Just a great drummer for each and every song by each and every musician he worked with. I heard Heath as the drummer on Herbie Hancock’s Fat Albert Rotunda, on a bunch of 60s classics where Art Farmer was the leader, and another batch with Dexter Gordon at the helm; Heath was also the drummer on Nina Simone’s 1958 studio debut, Little Girl Blue. (He was on the follow-up, the leftovers from those sessions, released as Nina Simone and her Friends). And one of the records he played on that had the most impact on me was The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, where he and his brother Percy were the phenomenal and subtle rhythm section.
I heard him with Mal Waldron, Bud Shank, Blue Mitchell, Yusef Lateef, Clifford Jordon, Milt Jackson, Bobby Timmons, Kenny Clark and George Russell too.
His touch was magic. His playing sublime. He was one of the last of the true greats from that era. And now, he gets his rest. He gets to hang with his brothers once again.
He was one of three legendary jazz-playing Heath brothers — they even had a band together for a handful of great albums. Tootie on drums, Jimmy on tenor saxophone, (d. 2020) Percy on bass (d. 2005). The band now will be reunited.
R.I.P. Albert “Tootie” Heath.
