StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Jimmy Heath of the Heath Brothers, heard as player and arranger

This week's videos feature the venerable tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath in his capacities as both player and arranger. Heath and his percussionist sibling Albert, also known as "Tootie," will be in St. Louis under the collective banner of the Heath Brothers to perform at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday, March 26 through Saturday, March 29.

The Heath Brothers also will take part in one of Jazz St. Louis' "Jazz Perspectives" discussions on Tuesday, March 25, and based on their long years of experience in the music business, they should have some fascinating stories to tell. The Philadelphia natives have played or recorded with many of the greatest jazz musicians from the 1950s to the present, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery and Herbie Hancock. They formed the Heath Brothers group in 1975 with eldest brother Percy (who also was the bassist in the famed Modern Jazz Quartet). Though Percy passed away in 2005, his brothers have continued to record and perform together, and both also are heavily involved in music education.

The first clip shows Jimmy Heath performing the Milt Jackson composition "Fungi Mama" at a Jazzmobile concert in NYC. The audio/video quality is a bit rough, as you'd expect from a handheld recorder wielded by an audience member at an outdoor show, but Heath plays a tasty solo and you can definitely see and hear well enough to get the idea.

The second video shows shows Jimmy Heath directing and soloing with the Berklee College of Music Jazz Orchestra. It's from a program of Heath's arrangements done in 2005 at the college, but, alas, the source of the clip did not note the name of this particular composition. It's some nice writing, though, and the student ensemble gives the piece a very serviceable, if not fully professional, rendition.

As a bonus, there's a third clip this week, the trailer for a 2004 documentary about the Heath Brothers called, appropriately enough, Brotherly Jazz. Though a mere trailer is too short to delve into the details of their individual stories, it does give a bit of a feel for the Heath Brothers' place in the jazz pantheon and the esteem in which they are held by their musical colleagues. It also provides a welcome opportunity to hear some of Tootie Heath's playing, as he lays down a nice groove to set up the clip. (For some reason, there's a lack of video footage of Tootie online, although he can be seen here backing up Sonny Rollins in a 1968 version of "On Green Dolphin Street" and here backing up Dexter Gordon in another clip from around the same time.)