Jimmy Heath
October 25, 1926 — January 19, 2020
Excerpted from article on kpbs.org
Heath died Sunday morning in Loganville, Georgia of natural causes, his grandson told NPR. He was 93 years old. His family was at his side, including his wife of 60 years, Mona Heath, his children Mtume and Rozie, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and his brother, drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath.
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Heath is best known as a saxophonist, but he wrote and arranged music throughout his life. In 2013, when he was 87 years old, he told NPR it was important to be a complete musician. "Not just to stand up and improvise," he stressed. "You know, you got to compose. I want to be a person who can compose, and leave something here for posterity."
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Jimmy Heath developed a big sound on his saxophone. But he was a little man — 5'3". For most of his life, his colleagues on the bandstand called him "Shorty" and "Little Bird" (a reference to saxophonist Charlie Parker, who was nicknamed "Bird").
"My father told me about that. He was a small guy," Heath said. "He says, 'Jimmy, you just got to work harder as a little person. Because the big guys get all of the girls, and all of the gigs. They get everything. But if you pursue your profession, and music, like I do, every day, just like before you came in here, I was practicing. And things like that, you can overcome these myths.'" Jimmy Heath had to overcome more than myths. He beat a very real heroin habit, and went on to perform and record for more than half a century. He also taught for 20 years at Queens College in New York. Heath said the reason he was able to do all that was simple. "I'm going to do this until I leave. This is all I love. It's a matter of love. If you love what you do, and you can make a living at it, What's better?" And Jimmy Heath was one of the best.
Claudio Roditi
May 28, 1946 — January 18, 2020
Excerpted from article on wbgo.org
Claudio Roditi, whose lyrical poise and burnished warmth on trumpet and flugelhorn helped make him one of the most accomplished jazz musicians from Brazil, died on Jan. 17 at his home in South Orange, N.J. He was 73.
His wife, Kristen Park, acknowledged his death yesterday on a GoFundMe page established to help support his treatment for prostate cancer. “He didn’t like the concept of ‘battling’ or ‘fighting’ cancer,” she wrote. “He accepted it and felt it was more like something that he was just trying to live with.”
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Roditi began exploring jazz in his early teenage years, inspired by trumpet heroes like Gillespie and Miles Davis. After his father’s death, he moved with his family back to Rio, where he received more formal training from noted saxophonist Aurino Ferreira.
By the mid-1960s, just as bossa nova was becoming a worldwide phenomenon, Roditi began to feel restless in Rio. He entered a jazz competition in Vienna, Austria, in ’66, receiving positive feedback from its distinguished jury, which included alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, trombonist J.J. Johnson, and a trumpet hero, Art Farmer. In short order, Farmer became a mentor, encouraging him to pursue a jazz career.
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News of Roditi’s death circulated on Sunday, just as the music world was absorbing the loss of saxophonist, composer and NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath. On social media, artists like trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and bassist Christian McBride observed these losses as a one-two punch, and a sad day for jazz.
Among the many times Roditi and Heath had crossed paths was a record date in 1992, for the latter’s Little Man Big Band.
On New Year’s Day, Roditi had posted a note to his GoFundMe page that reflected on his health struggles. “I always try to see a glimmer of hope in any situation,” he wrote. “It means the focus is on the present moment and all the beauty (and music!) that exists in that very moment.”