FAREWELL, AIRMAN:

Percy Heath, Bassist of Modern Jazz Quartet, Dies at 81 (PETER KEEPNEWS, April 29, 2005, NY Times)

Percy Heath, whose forceful and buoyant bass playing anchored the Modern Jazz Quartet for its entire four-decade existence, died yesterday in Southampton, N.Y. He was 81 and lived in Montauk, on Long Island.

The cause of death was bone cancer, his family said.

Mr. Heath recorded with most of the leading musicians in modern jazz, including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. But from the early 1950's through the middle 1970's, most of his recording activity and all of his live performances were devoted to the group known to its fans around the world as the M. J .Q.

He had been playing bass for only about four years when he became a charter member of the quartet, whose musical director was the pianist and composer John Lewis. "John told me, 'Percy, you don't know enough about what we're going to do, so you better get yourself lessons,' " Mr. Heath told the jazz critic Gary Giddins. "John's music was a challenge and I appreciated it."

Mr. Heath proved to be a quick study, mastering Mr. Lewis's sophisticated compositions and arrangements and adding an unpretentious, bluesy sensibility of his own. He rarely took a solo, and his role in the quartet by its very nature drew less attention than the work of Mr. Lewis and the vibraphonist Milt Jackson. But his contributions were no less essential to the group's distinctive sound, or to its remarkable longevity and success. [...]

During World War II he served with the Army Air Corps in Alabama, where he trained as a pilot; he was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Truth be told, I was more an admirer than a fan of the MJQ...I appreciate John Lewis's skills and sensibility, but his music doesn't grab me. If it weren't for Milt Jackson (one of my all-time favorites), I don't honestly know whether I could sit through an entire MJQ concert or album. On the other hand, I like a lot of the work that Percy Heath did with his brothers in the various "Heath Brothers" aggregations over the years (with Brother Jimmy on sax and Brother Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums). I saw the Heath Brothers play in a club in LA about 5 or 6 years ago, and they were wonderful...3 old masters making great music.

Posted by Glenn Dryfoos at May 3, 2005 12:01 AM