Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, NJ)
John Devonshire : 10/31/1976

Jimmy Heath of the famous Heath family (Percy, bass, and Al, drums) is always a joy to listen to. This recording is typical of what he does best… good, solid, no-nonsense jazz played with verve and obvious pleasure. Heath has never given in to any of the fads jazz has been subject to over the years. He plays uncompromising, swinging mainstream modern jazz, and plays it well.

Heath’s tenor and soprano saxes are given rock solid support by the fine rhythm section of Barry Harris on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. That adds up to a fine quartet playing five engaging Heath originals written and recorded by many groups between 1953 and 1962, and one standard, Body and Soul.

Heath begins Body and Soul, long a showcase for tenor saxophone players, on soprano sax and finishes on tenor after Harris’ solo. It is one of the album’s highlights. The original compositions, played mostly on tenor, clearly show the infectious quality of Heath’s playing. His sheer joy in making music comes through and makes the listener a part of the event. He is an extremely skillful musician and a gifted improviser, who effortlessly weaves melodic variations while swinging mightily. Good album.

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Audio Magazine
Dan Morgenstern : June, 1976
Sound : A / Performance : A

Though he will celebrate his 50th birthday this year, Jimmy Heath is not nearly as well known as he ought to be. This album, probably his best as a player (he is also a first-rate composer and arranger), might remedy that unfortunate condition.

Brother of bassist Percy (the bedrock of the Modern Jazz Quartet) and drummer Al (known as Tootie), Jimmy has worked with such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, J.J. Johnson and Donald Byrd. He is a splendid musician whose work is free from any trace of meretriciousness or vanity. He has never pandered to fads or fancies and has remained true to the jazz spirit.

Supported by a first-rate rhythm section, Heath maintains a high level of inspiration in a program of his own compositions and that classic test piece for tenor saxophonists, Body and Soul. On this, he introduces the theme on soprano sax, and then, after Barry Harris’ lovely solo, proceeds to build to a moving climax on tenor. Outstanding, too, is his work on the fast Minors Only, where he creates an ambiance worthy of Dexter Gordon or Sonny Rollins. His soprano feature, Members, shows his attractive tone and lyrical conception on the smaller horn, but it is on tenor that Jimmy Heath stakes out his claim to recognition as a major artist.

Coincidentally, Milestone has recently released Fast Company (M-47025), a two-record set culled from Heath’s 1959-64 albums on the old Riverside label. It rounds out the picture of Heath nicely, focusing on his talents as an arranger for various interesting combinations of instruments, and features, among others, the Adderley Brothers, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Burrell, Herbie Hancock, and Percy and Albert Heath.

But first, hear what Jimmy Heath can do today. It is the work of a master.

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Boston Phoenix (Boston, MA)
Bob Blumenthal : February 24, 1976
(part of a larger column about tenor sax in jazz)

Contemporary examples of the tenor-plus-rhythm format are less common; the major labels have newer sounds to market. The tradition is being upheld, fortunately, by the independent record producers, who are making space for both old favorites and less familiar players. Producer Don Schlitten, a proven wizard at capturing tenors on vinyl, continues his good works with Picture of Heath (Xanadu). Jimmy Heath is as noted for his writing as his blowing, and there are some fine Heath compositions here (For Minors Only, C.T.A.), while his tenor and occasional soprano reveal more ingenuity than did his recent Boston appearance. Body and Soul, the ballad feature, is superb; Barry Harris and Billy Higgins offer their usual stellar support.

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Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
Chris Colombi Jr. : 03/16/1976

Xanadu Records, the new label headed by Don Schlitten out of New York, continues to grow in reputation for its new releases of mainstream jazz artists at work in the ’70s—people like Al Cohn, Charles McPherson and Jimmy Heath—and for its re-releases of material from the bop era onward.

The most recent package of five new albums from Xanadu includes the label’s commitment to good engineering. Even on the older material, admittedly from less-than-perfect sources, the reproduction for today’s turntables has always been at least adequate, and often better than that. And Schlitten continues to produce albums that are carefully annotated.

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Jimmy Heath / Picture of Heath (Xanadu 118) offers yet another mainstream reed man, and one who can play niftily on the entire reed family, although he works here only on tenor and soprano saxes. Heath is accompanied by Harris, Jones and drummer Billy Higgins, in performances on five of his own compositions, including C.T.A., introduced by Miles Davis in 1953, and continuing until the 1962 Bruh’ Slim.

Heath is heard to advantage not only on Slim, a good mixture of Latin and 4/4, but also on Body and Soul, a standard that he introduces on soprano and recaps on tenor sax.

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Liner Notes by Mark Gardner

As these words are written, Jimmy Heath, who just scraped in under the birth sign of Scorpio, is about to enter his fiftieth year. A decade ago the saxophonist opined, “Life begins at forty.” But as things turned out, it only started happening again for Jimmy in his late forties. Eight years drifted by without a single Heath-led recording session. Sure, he was working steadily, as well as recording with others, and he continued composing. Royalty checks from his many originals recorded by some of the major figures in jazz supplemented his income.

But Jimmy Heath was getting no personal exposure. The explanation was simple, as he explained to writer Valerie Wilmer: “You see, I’m not the sort of person to go up to somebody and say, ‘I would like to record for your record company,’ and write up a whole brochure of all the things I have done for the past twenty-five years. I’ll never start making tapes to take along for people to hear me; I’ll just continue to live like I’m living. If you come down and hear me play, you’ll find the reason why I haven’t been no overnight success.”

Heath plays his own way and rejects the idea of touting for publicity or pandering to the musical whims of the moment. Fortunately, Don Schlitten needed no tapes from Jimmy to be aware of what he could do. In 1972, the producer went looking for the artist and asked him to record. The result was an album called, significantly, The Gap Sealer. Since then there have been two more Jimmy Heath sessions and he has appeared on LPs as a sideman with brother Albert Heath, pianist Red Garland, organist Don Patterson (all incidentally produced by Don Schlitten) and singer Johnny Hartman. Now they have even started to reissue some of Jimmy’s excellent sides from 15 years ago.

The return of Heath to center stage in today’s jazz drama has not been marked by fervid fanfares. But a lot of people who still dig good music on Planet Earth have felt happy, grateful and rewarded by his re-emergence. The non-availability of any recordings by Jimmy in the catalogues somehow typified the mindless phase that jazz went through during the Nixon years.

It is just as well that Jimmy is blessed with a philosophical outlook and an abundance of patience. His time is now and, lucky for us, he is playing better than at any period of his long and honourable career. Although he will be writing no brochures about himself, Jimmy is saying a wealth of personal things on his saxophones. I will recall, however, that his past credentials are impeccable. He worked with all the trumpet giants, including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Kenny Dorham and Howard McGhee.

He started on alto, doubled on baritone, switched to tenor and more recently added flute and soprano to his instrumental accomplishments. He went through the mill of problems (like legions of his contemporaries) but came out of them whole, wiser and more mature. Through the good and bad years a steady flow of compositions was produced by this gifted man. Few individuals can compose, arrange and play and be brilliant in all three endeavours. Mr. Heath is one of the few.

He provided an interesting insight into his conception to Miss Wilmer: “If you don’t have the whole spiritual thing, I don’t think jazz is complete. To me, a musician is just a transformer. It’s like I receive the music from somewhere else. If I sit down to write a tune, nobody comes up and tells me what to write; it comes from somewhere else. It’s not really mine; I’m supposed to transform this music.”

In Picture of Heath, Jimmy transforms in a different way because the setting is quite unlike those of his previous records. He has played the occasional tune with only trio backing in earlier collections, but this is his first quartet date wherein Jimmy is the sole horn. He used the opportunity to approach in a new manner five of his older compositions and to tackle the high jump that every tenor player worth his salt must leap eventually — Body and Soul.

To help paint this intimate portrait of Heath meant Barry Harris, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins. Barry, a Xanadu regular, earned Jimmy’s respect long ago when they played together on a Carmell Jones recording. The empathy is evidenced by Heath’s confidence in the pianist’s powers. “Take as many choruses as you like on this one, Barry,” was a typical instruction from the leader. That kind of remark shows Heath’s regard for a peerless soloist and accompanist.

Jimmy is not given to gushing praise. “Sam Jones is steady,” he says firmly, and you know he values highly that firm, accurate support, the big tone and bass lines that strengthen the performance and never throw the soloist.

Like Sam, drummer Billy Higgins is a favorite of both Jimmy and Don. Notes Mr. Heath: “Billy is always happy and makes me happy also. He listens.” Smilin’ Billy was the title of a composition by Jimmy dedicated to his percussionist. He wrote it for the love of the way Billy Higgins plays and for his love of music and of playing.

So these are the four men from four cities, four states, and all New Yorkers by adoption, who fuse their talents as one. Higgins and Jones pour in the sunshine from California and Florida respectively, Harris supplies the invigorating breezes from the Michigan Lakes, and stirring it all together is Heath’s East Coast energy. Wherever they came from originally, these artists play New York. Like the myriad aspects of that teeming metropolis, they reflect multiple emotions. This is life music—honest, non-flamboyant yet thrilling, as the best moments of living always are.

Higgins voices Jimmy’s thoughts about transforming music in a slightly different way but the sentiments are the same: “Music don’t belong to nobody. If they could just realise that music doesn’t come from you, it comes through you, and if you don’t get the right vibrations, you might kill a little bit of it. You can’t take music for granted.”

Neither can you take the playing of these four brothers for granted. It jumps out and grabs you with its sheer power and potency. While Jimmy’s 50-plus compositions have been recorded by musicians as diverse as Chet Baker and Miles Davis, Groove Holmes and Milt Jackson, Eddie Harris and James Moody, Mr. Heath demonstrates five times over here that he is his own best interpreter (or transformer, if you will).

The quintet of Jimmy’s tunes presented in this Picture of Heath encompass almost a decade of compositional effort. The years covered are 1953–1962. C.T.A. is one of his most famous works and dates from 1953 when it was first recorded by Miles Davis for Blue Note. The initials C.T.A. stand for the Central Trucking Agency which happened to be situated close to the Blue Note offices. For Minors Only was waxed by Jimmy at his first date for Riverside Records in 1959. Picture of Heath is from the following year, as is All Members (first heard on a Sam Jones-led session at Riverside). Bruh’ Slim was premiered on a 1962 Jimmy Heath Sextet album. Ira Gitler described it as a catchy melody then, and so it also is 15 years later.

Although Mr. Heath plays virtually the whole family of saxophones plus flute—and uses piano and guitar for composing to boot—on this album he performs on only tenor and soprano saxes. The lion’s share is allocated to his tenor (featured on five selections) while the soprano is employed on two. If your addition suggests there ought to be another track, be advised that both soprano and tenor are utilized on Body and Soul, but more of this later.

If the opening number is For Minors Only, I count myself a kiddie. It is minor keys that we are talking about, though. The attractive changes are certainly suited to up-tempo wailing. The theme has a nursery rhyme quality that goes with the title. Jimmy carves an exciting, stomping solo, each successive chorus yielding new delights with some especially effective tonguing in his last. Barry steps in to keep the pot boilin’ and drummer Billy fashions a superbly understated solo before Jimmy returns to address the youngsters once more.

One would think Body and Soul on tenor was challenge enough, but not for the enterprising Heath. He doubles the standard by giving us B&S firstly on the soprano. His limning of the classic line on the straight horn confirms that his tone surely does have body. After a Harris interlude of melodic beauty, Jimmy comes back on tenor to provide true soul. It is not a long solo but it compresses so many good ideas and ends with a masterly coda. Note Barry’s extremely apt, emphatic accompaniment towards the close of the tenor solo. Producer Schlitten had only one word for the performance, “Perfect.” I can’t improve on that accurate assessment.

Picture of Heath is another fine tune by Jimmy. It is given a well-thought-out treatment. Jimmy and Sam duet the main theme, Barry and Billy slide in for the bridge, only for tenor and bass to return for the last eight. The elegant Mr. Harris opens the solo order at a pace and in a climate of which he obviously approves. Jimmy’s lovely open sound, his occasional shake, his skilled toying with and inverting of phrases, the echoing of himself in one memorable moment, and the skill and control of Mr. Higgins are all part of this loving Picture. In its way truly a talking picture because it speaks volumes about the player, composer and leader.

Bruh’ Slim is a great track, alternating between Latin and 4/4 feelings. The two moods intertwine and Jimmy dances from one beat to the other with elan. He even implies that these rhythms are fascinatin’ at one point. Barry was charged with taking as many choruses as he wanted on this one and he took full advantage of the offer in the best possible way. Sam takes what may be one of his best solos on record so far and then Jimmy and Billy trade some beauties in this extended tribute to Jimmy’s brother Percy.

A longer look at Jimmy’s soprano style is afforded by the pulsating surge proffered by all members on All Members. Barry puts everyone in the mood in his securely shaped solo in which you needn’t take too seriously his forecast of Stormy Weather. Heath gets a lovely liquid tone from the soprano, not unlike that of Lucky Thompson’s, but the ideas are unmistakably those of Jimmy. He inserts some bop phrases, too, leading us to wonder how Bird and other departed saxophone giants of that era would have sounded on soprano. Sam’s concise solo leaves me with only one thought, “play it again, Sam!”

If we are to judge by Barry’s introduction and solo on C.T.A., the second initial should stand for ‘Thelonious’ because Harris gives the piece a Monk-ian flavour (to be precise, Bemsha Swing which the pianist deftly quotes from, as he does also from the tune Thelonious later in the solo). This new version is marginally slower than the original by Miles in 1953. Invention and imagination are to the fore in the statements of Heath and Harris and the fours in which Higgins participates.

So, after more than 30 years of making melodic music, Jimmy Heath is finally heard at the helm of a quartet, proving beyond a doubt that he requires no other horns to lean on. He plays throughout with all the enthusiasm and exuberance of a man half his age, but his improvisations bespeak the mind of a mature artist. The older he gets, the better he blows. That fact is proclaimed by Picture of Heath and for this reason we can all wait eagerly for the next Heath picture.