THE INDEPENDENT EAR
Insights, Reviews & Interviews
By Willard Jenkins

Vol. 1 No. 2

Independent Ear: Artist's P.O.V.
Jimmy Heath
11/6/06
Seattle, WA
Jimmy Heath's Washington state residency November 3-6 was a joint project of Seattle's ambitious presenting organization Earshot Jazz and the Seattle Repertory Orchestra. The residency consisted of rehearsals of a new work the Seattle Repertory Orchestra commissioned from Jimmy, including an open public rehearsal at the Langston Hughes culture center. The culmination was a Saturday evening concert performance of the new work at Seattle's beautiful downtown Benaroya Hall as part of the annual Earshot Jazz Festival, and a Sunday afternoon matinee performance in suburban Kirtland, WA. Our conversation took place that afternoon, following his second performance with the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra, an immensely skilled ensemble which played Jimmy Heath's compositions with great authority.

Willard Jenkins: Talk about your experience in Seattle with this commission and working with the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra (SJRO).

Jimmy Heath: The commission is from Meet the Composer. Michael Brockman [pianist-co-leader of the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra] called me… I had been here five years ago to do some of my music - and he asked me if I would be amenable to writing a piece for the SJRO. Working with them [SJRO] about five years ago was a pleasure; they were playing all of my music.

This time Michael and [co-leader-drummer] Clarence Acox asked me if I would write a piece just for them because they had the possibility of a Meet the Composer grant. I said sure, I would like to write an extended piece since this will be about my tenth [extended piece]. It took me awhile to write this piece; I had these gigs going on all around it so I would put it away and come back to it. I was really concerned about having a theme as most extended works should have. Eventually it came together.

The theme has a melodic shape that's taken from the words: The Endless Search. Utilizing that throughout the orchestra was something that I learned when I was studying with Professor Rudolph Schram at NYU. They had maybe two or three rehearsals of the piece before I got here.

The thing about writing from the computer as I do now at this point in my life is that when you playback on the computer it sounds like a glorified accordion, it doesn't sound like the band. Always when you get the breath of life in the music it comes to fruition like you think. Sometimes it even amazes you that you wrote something like this because of the inadequacies of the computer composing equipment. The notation possibilities of the computer are great, but its sound possibilities are not much to be desired. When I came here the other day and heard the band play the music at rehearsal Thursday - which was my first time hearing it (we rehearsed in a closed, small venue at Garfield High School) - it sounded really special to me. I wanted to just be able to bring my little part to it - my few solos and work on that. Then on Friday we had another rehearsal. On Saturday when we were at the Langston Hughes Center we played a little excerpt of the piece along with our lecture.

WJ: Many times those kinds of public opportunities have involved the Masters interacting with student audiences. On Saturday at Langston Hughes it was a largely adult, non-playing audience. It was like an open rehearsal for an adult audience. What are the benefits of a setting like that?

JH: The questions are different when you're dealing with adults who have heard jazz music probably all their lives and they centered their questions about people I've known. They wanted to hear about some of the giants, specifically about people like 'Trane. But there were a few students of Clarence Acox in the audience. It was a great audience. We take what we get; by this time in my life I'm used to large and small audiences. I thought it went well.

A lot of people asked me questions about the Endowment and what the NEA Jazz Masters meant. I have a way of criticizing as well as praising the Endowment that I need to always bring about because it is the organization that is giving a little - or a lot in some cases - of credibility to the music that we've worked so hard on all our lives. Dana Gioia has done wonders since he's been there; I really admire his presence and what he's done to help give us more visibility. Having gone out to Helena, Montana, and Salt Lake City and places where I hadn't been privy to go [previously], it was a new experience.

WJ: Clearly through this program you've gone places you might not ordinarily have gone. How would you compare these experiences?

JH: Comparing Seattle [to some of the other cities] is not applicable because Seattle has had a jazz community for so long.

WJ: Not necessarily the cities themselves but compare your experiences when you've visited these places.

JH: Helena, MT was really a different kind of experience. I don't think there were enough people interested when we went there, there didn't seem to be an audience of any size. But we did what we did and there were some hard core people there, so we got to some people who know about this music.

WJ: What did you do in Helena?

JH: I played a concert there in a theatre with my quartet. The theatre was built in 1926, the same year I was born.

WJ: The Myrna Loy Center.

JH: The Myrna Loy Center, right. I found out that a lot of my peers had been there to perform. So there must be some audience there.

WJ: That organization has been responsible for whatever jazz plays that town. They're literally the only game in town.

JH: I enjoyed the Myrna Loy Theatre and we were treated well by the [host organization] and the people who were around the presentation.

WJ: What did you do in Salt Lake City?

JH: Salt Lake City was a better venue to perform because we performed on an outdoor stage downtown in the center of the city, in a park or square. Another group played before us so we had the experience of dealing with that, and we were treated very well. We had a nice Masterclass at a school there and the performance was nice; I would like to go back to Salt Lake.

WJ: Were these three experiences your main involvement with NEAJMOT?

JH: They were the main things but early in the presentation of this program, I played Cleveland [Tri-C JazzFest]… so Seattle was about the 4th or 5th thing I've done through the program.

WJ: What's the value of a residency like this one you're doing in Seattle?

JH: The value of any residency in any of these cities is to bring a greater awareness of the creative endeavors of the jazz greats that are considered jazz masters; to bring that to the people who haven't had an opportunity… at a Masterclass where you can talk to these people and the performance. The combination is very necessary.

WJ: What would you like see from this program in the future?

JH: I'd like to see the [NEAJMOT] program expand. I've been to certain places in the south [in the past] through the black college network tour. I would like to go back under this banner, as a jazz master.

The most important thing is when I got my $20,000 [NEAJM] fellowship I had been planning but it really helped me to put together this big band recording I have out now called Turn Up the Heath. I spent $18K of my own money on the record then I hooked up with Planet Arts [label] and they spent the rest to pay for it. A big band album costs about $40,000 to make, and that's cutting it cheap. When I made the Little Man Big Band record with Bill Cosby producing, that one cost about $45,000 to make with Verve. So when [NEAJMs] get this money they should use it to better the music and to better their lives, because the record companies are not hiring instrumental musicians now.

WJ: Are you interested in doing more of these kinds of engagements, where you travel to perform specifically your compositions with a local band of musicians?

JH: I've done a lot of that ever since I made that record Little Man Big Band; I've been playing a lot of colleges.

Latest recording: Turn Up the Heath, Planet Arts

The fans post-performance…

WJ: What is your sense of someone like a Jimmy Heath, a NEA Jazz Master, being able to come and perform with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra?

Fan #1: Two things: one it validates the local orchestra to have a major figure come and perform with them; they learn from the experience as well. Being able to play a master composer's arrangements under his direction is extremely important. The whole thrust of the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra has been to invite people like Jimmy Heath and learn from them by playing their arrangements under their direction. And from the audience's standpoint it certainly gives the audience the opportunity to see these world class people in this situation.

WJ: What did you think about the way the audience responded to Jimmy Heath's music?

Fan #1: The audience was so excited about it, they loved Jimmy's playing and they loved Jimmy's conducting; he's a wonderful visual person to watch conduct too. He's got such a warm personality projected onstage the audience just loves it.

WJ: What is your sense of this opportunity for someone like Jimmy Heath to work with the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra?

Fan #2: I think we're very blessed to have somebody like Jimmy come here. I saw him about two or three years ago perform here and I saw him down in Monterey with his brothers about three years ago, but it's really great to have him play with a group like [Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra]. My daughter and I were just talking about how it's a jewel to have the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra and they do bring in great artists.

Fan #3: I agree. And the fact that so many of them teach in the schools, and kids who are going to school at Roosevelt and Garfield get to learn from these people, and they're working musicians, they don't just teach.

WJ: What does it mean for the Seattle Jazz Repertory Orchestra to bring a jazz master here like Jimmy Heath?

Fan #3: I think a lot of these people are getting along in years and I personally had never heard of Jimmy Heath and I think it's fantastic to see these people who are 80 years old and they're still playing and it just reminds me of the golden age of jazz.

Fan #2: It's a shame that if you look in the audience they're mostly mature people, older people, and considering the history of a lot of these guys who play in the band, it's a shame they don't have more young people. I know they make that available to people, but it's difficult to get younger people to come; it's a shame they don't avail themselves of these artists. There are all these high school jazz bands up here that are really wonderful.

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