NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath & The Generations Band

NEA Jazz Master, Jimmy Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist and a magnificent composer and arranger.  The middle brother of the legendary Heath Brothers (bassist, Percy Heath and drummer, Tootie Heath) he has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis. At the age of 21, he performed in the First International Jazz Festival in Paris sharing the stage with Coleman Hawkins, Slam Stewart, and Erroll Garner and one of his earliest big bands (1947-1948) in Philadelphia included the likes of John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Charlie Parker and Max Roach. Heath has performed on more than 100 recordings, including seven with The Heath Brothers. He has written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards that were recorded by jazz greats Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and many others. He has also composed seven suites and two string quartets as well as a symphonic work, “Three Ears.” A Professor of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College for eleven years, a position he recently left, Heath still maintains an extensive performance schedule and continues to conduct workshops and clinics throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. His enduring dedication to jazz as well as his musicianship have prompted praise from the best in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie who said, “All I can say is, if you know Jimmy Heath, you know Bop,” and Miles Davis who stated, “Trane was always high on Jimmy’s playing and so was I … Jimmy is one of the thoroughbreds.” The Generations Band is a project of the International Center for the Arts (ICA) at San Francisco State University which grew from a deep reverence for traditional modern jazz and a desire to rekindle one of its most crucial traditions–that of intensive, inter-generational mentoring. The Generations Band comprises an all-star line up of jazz veterans who each year act as mentors to a young jazz combo (the winners of an international competition for emerging jazz combos) in residency at SFSU. Generations features, tonight, the other living Heath brother, the legendary Tootie Heath on drums; the band’s Artistic Director, Andrew Speight, alto saxophone; Eric Alexander, tenor saxophone; Terrell Stafford, trumpet; Dave Hazeltine, piano; and Ray Drummond, bass.

$40/$30/$25/$15. $5 discount Members & Students (No Member Passes)
Available in advance, by phone or in person, at the Outpost Performance Space (268-0044); Lensic Box Office 505-988-1234; 
or on the web at www.ticketssantafe.org