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Albert “Tootie” Heath has died at age 88. He performed drums with principally all of the greats of the Nineteen Fifties, ’60s and past and is on the primary albums that Nina Simone and John Coltrane made as bandleaders.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Albert Heath has died. Like many jazz musicians of his time, he was higher recognized by his nickname, Tootie. And Tootie Heath received round.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME”)
NINA SIMONE: (Singing) My child simply cares for me.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
He performed drums with principally all of the greats of the ’50s, ’60s and past. He is on early albums from Nina Simone and John Coltrane, and he made basic data with Herbie Hancock, Benny Golson, Wes Montgomery.
(SOUNDBITE OF WES MONTGOMERY’S “AIREGIN”)
KELLY: His older brothers, Percy Heath – who performed bass, and Jimmy Heath, who performed saxophone – they had been additionally jazz royalty. Sometimes they carried out collectively because the Heath Brothers, and their music received round, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEATH BROTHERS’ “SMILIN’ BILLY SUITE (PART 2)”)
SHAPIRO: Tootie Heath was born in 1935 and grew up in Philadelphia amongst a number of different main musicians within the making, not least of whom had been his brothers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
ALBERT HEATH: It appeared like my home was the capital of jazz due to Jimmy and my brother Percy, who joined us later. He was…
SHAPIRO: Tootie spoke to NPR in 2015 about his lengthy profession enjoying many kinds of jazz. He stated, as a drummer, he needed to be versatile, do various things that bandleaders would possibly need and be OK with them.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
HEATH: My concept with music is that it solely lasts for – what? – a music. However then it is over. So when do you play it once more? Possibly tomorrow, possibly not. You recognize, if folks throw tomatoes at us, we do not play that anymore.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALBERT HEATH, BEN STREET AND ETHAN IVERSON’S “THE CHARLESTON”)
KELLY: Late in Heath’s profession, in his 70s and 80s, youthful musicians realized that this residing hyperlink to an earlier period of jazz was nonetheless round. They requested Tootie to play and file with him. He spoke extremely of youthful pianists like Emmet Cohen and Ethan Iverson, the latter of whom he made a number of data with.
SHAPIRO: In 2021, he joined his brothers in receiving the nation’s highest honor for jazz musicians, the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Heath instructed NPR host Arun Rath that he hadn’t meant to make a profession out of music, however in the future he was enjoying together with his teenage buddies in a venue throughout the road from his home.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
HEATH: And it should have been terrible. And one man got here up and gave us 75 cents as a tip. And he was drunk, after all, ? And he walked over – oh, you children are nice. And he gave us 75 cents. I spotted then that is 1 / 4 a chunk. Hey, man. We are able to receives a commission for doing this.
ARUN RATH: Effectively, I am glad you guys received that 75 cents, although, ‘trigger you bought loads higher.
HEATH: Yeah. I have been creating wealth at this ever since – 75, greenback, greenback and a half, 50 cents.
KELLY: He made sufficient for fairly some time. Albert “Tootie” Heath was 88 years previous.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALBERT HEATH, BEN STREET AND ETHAN IVERSON’S “SPEAK LOW”)
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