Albert “Tootie” Heath, the humorous, innate drummer, who was adept in playing any style of jazz and influenced musicians for over seven decades died on April 3, at CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 88.
The cause was leukemia, said his wife Beverly Heath, to Philadelphia radio station WRTI. Heath was stationed in the jazz tradition but never stopped pursuing the expansion of the art form that led him to explore elements of African percussion, North Indian beats and other rhythmic styles. This along with his uncanny intuitiveness made him an elite first-call drummer for a long list of luminaries including avant gardists Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, Dexter Gordon, Clifford Jordan, and Yusef Lateef. His career continued with varied appearances on albums that are now, jazz standards including; John Coltrane’s
“Coltrane” (this 1957 recording proved to be a wonderful outing for Heath’s first recording date), “The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery,” Nina Simone’s ”Little Girl Blue,” and Herbie Hancock’s ”The Prisoner.” He was recorded on over 100 albums.
Within the last decade his many prestigious honors have included a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America in 2018. Heath was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2021, an honor that was previously awarded to his older brothers Jimmy and Percy.
“Stay open-minded, and you have to pay attention to other cultures and other music in order to be as good as you needed to be in the genre that you’re in,” Heath said in a 2021 interview with the National Endowment for the Arts after he was named an NEA Jazz Master.
Albert Heath was born on May 31, 1935 in Philadelphia. His father, Percy Heath Sr., was an auto mechanic, and a clarinetist in a marching band; his mother, Arlethia, was a hairdresser who sang in the church choir. He grew up in a household saturated with music and a reputation to live up to with his older brothers, Jimmy Heath playing saxophone and Percy Heath on bass. The young “Tootie,” a nickname reflecting his love for tutti-frutti ice cream, was primarily self-taught as a drummer. But he also had the local celebrated drummer Charles “Specs” Wright, who mentored him. He soon began jamming with his brothers before gaining recognition around Philadelphia playing with rising heavies like Ray Bryant, Lee Morgan, and Bobby Timmons. “It seemed like my house was the capital of jazz,” he recalled in a 2015 interview with NPR.
By February 1957, the 21-year-old Heath was sitting in with his larger than life hero Thelonious Monk on piano and Jimmy Bond on bass at Philadelphia’s Blue Note.
“On the bandstand, Tootie taught me one key lesson that has permeated my artistry, being liquid in all that you play and do,” said bassist and composer Russell Hall. “Not only did Tootie possess this childlike freedom every time he touched the drums or told one of his hyper risqué jokes, that looseness was represented in his entire fiber of being. He always dressed with an air of sophistication without ever being stuffy or bourgeois, as if he were a painter in the Mediterranean.”
Some of Heath’s most noted work was as a leader with a group that included his two older brothers. Heath’s first album, “Kawaida” in 1969, included African-inspired tracks drawn from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. The collective featured his brother Jimmy on saxophones and his nephew Mtume on congas, along with pianist Herbie Hancock, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Buster Williams, and percussionist Ed Blackwell. His 1973 album ”Kwanza (The First),” featured Swahili songs inspired by his work with Yusef Lateef.
Two years after its release, they officially formed their working band as the Heath Brothers. They recorded more than six albums. In 2006, “Brotherly Jazz: The Heath Brothers,” was a mix of music and interviews following their early lives together in Philadelphia and their bonds with collaborators like Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Taj Mahal.
“I was lucky to have performed with Tootie many times in my life from performances for the NEA celebrating NEA Jazz Masters, and touring Hamburg and Berlin, Germany, where those performances showed his funny side,” said trumpeter and NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Owens.
The Heath family spirit nourished them in their various reunions, including the one that ended with Percy’s death in 2005. The remaining brothers continued on with bassist David Wong for more than a decade, until Jimmy died in 2020.
During the late 1990s, he was a member of the sophisticated Modern Jazz Quartet, a chair he held until the band disbanded in 1997. His brother Percy had been a member since 1951 when he replaced Ray Brown.
His next major musical endeavor was as producer and leader of The Whole Drum Truth, a jazz drum percussion ensemble featuring Ben Riley, Ed Thigpen, Jackie Williams, Billy Hart, Charlie Persip, Leroy Williams and Louis Hayes. In the years that followed the ensemble included young notables like Sylvia Cuenca and Willie Jones III.
Heath was an instructor at the Stanford Jazz Workshop for more than 30 years and conducted seminars at colleges around the country. He also performed until recent months, often playing his familiar role as band’s spokesman and jester.
“You know, there’s an old Duke Ellington saying,” he told LA Weekly in 2009. “To play jazz you got to have one foot in Africa and the other foot in today. And I think it has expanded a bit: You got to have one foot in Africa and one foot in the future. If you bring along your culture and all of the things you’ve experienced to the future, it makes it richer.”
Along with his wife of 50 years, Albert “Tootie” Heath is survived by four sons, Jonas Liedberg, Jens Heath, Scott Flood and Curt Flood, Jr.; two daughters, Debbie and Shelly Flood; a sister; nine grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.