The Heath Brothers – Paris 76
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Drums - Albert 'Tootie' Heath [click here to see more vinyl featuring Albert Tootie Heath]
Sax, flute - Jimmy Heath
Bass, cello - Percy Heath
Piano - Stanley Cowell [click here to see more vinyl featuring Stanley Cowell]
Written by Jimmy Heath (A1, B1), Percy Heath (A2)
1 LP, standard sleeve with double Insert
Limited to 3,000 copies
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Live Studio
Record Press : Garcia & Co, Marciac, France
Label : SAM Records
Original Label : SAM Records
Recorded live at Studio 104, Maison de la Radio, Paris, on April 16, 1976
Engineered by Francois-Le Xuan
Produced by André Francis for ORTF
Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Photo by Thierry Trombert
Artwork by Jean-Louis Duralek
Originally released in December 2023
Tracks:
Side A:
- One for Juan
- Watergate Blues
Side B:
- Smilin' Billy
Reviews :
"So, this album captures the three brothers with Cowell in Paris playing the three tunes about a year and a half before Albert left the band and it's a real treat especially for listeners used to hearing and seeing tuxedoed staid Percy in the MJQ here funking out on his composition "Watergate Blues". It's Percy Heath as you've never before heard him. The set opens with the tuneful Afro-Cuban "One For Juan", with Jimmy at one point playfully quoting a famous Coltrane riff and Cowell getting in a long intense solo. Albert gets in some hard hitting as well.
Percy has to wait for "Watergate Blues" to take center stage and when he does, he mimics a guitar, playing his "baby bass". It's so different from what you'd expect from Percy Heath, it's just too much fun—as is the entire track once the rest of the group joins in. The audience goes crazy.
Jimmy's mood changing "Smilin' Billy" takes up all of side two's 22 minutes. It begins with Heath's elegiac arco bass accompanied by Cowell's ghostly mbira and Heath's flute and builds from there into a swirling exotica meditation that takes flight when Cowell insistently thumbs the mbira well-captured by the recording. Albert's unsubtle pounding is occasionally a bit much where a lighter touch would be more helpful. As the tune rolls on Jimmy picks lips his soprano sax and moves the tune into meditative snake charmer territory and then into some harder blowing that takes the soprano and the tune itself into pretty deep places before the dramatic, muscular finale. When side two ends you'll know you've been somewhere special for forty five minutes.
The sound is seriously fine with the instruments all well-recorded and closely mic'd and mixed in wide-soundstage stereo. The high resolution digital transfer and restoration leaves nothing on the table in terms of spaciousness, overall transparency, instrumental three-dimensionality and macro dynamic slam—Albert's drum kit on the right channel discharges powerful sonic spasms and the reedy quality of Jimmy's soprano sax is on full textural display. Cowell's mbira is particularly well reproduced, especially the transient metallic "pluck" surrounded by lots of air.
Sam Records' excellent packaging consists of a fold-over jacket a thick poly-lined inner sleeve and a double panel black and white photo of The Heath Brothers, April 1976 by Thierry Trombert that also shows the microphone used and their placement, which helps explain the sonic immediacy.
The release is limited to 3000 copies. You won't regret picking one up for both the musical and sonic pleasure. And the packaging as well.” Tracking Angle Review by Michael Fremer
"Jimmy, Percy, and Tootie Heath teamed up in 1975 to form the Heath Brothers. Up until then, bassist Percy had been busy with the Modern Jazz Quartet, but with the group in "retirement" (temporarily as it turned out), all three brothers were free to join forces. Originally a quartet with pianist Stanley Cowell, but expanding after the addition of guitarist Tony Purrone and Jimmy's son Mtume on percussion, the band recorded for Strata East (1975), four albums for Columbia, and two for Island. Tootie Heath left the group early on and was replaced by Akira Tana, although he came back for the final 1983 record. Although the Heath Brothers' music was essentially hard bop, there were occasional departures into jazzy R&B on isolated selections. All of their albums are worth seeking out." AllMusic review by Scott Yanow
Ratings :
Discogs : 4.72 / 5 ; Michael Fremer : Music 9/11, Sound 8/11