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04-28-2005, 03:46 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Ontario | | | Just heard about Percy Heath...RIP
I was cruising the AAJ forums and saw that apparently Percy Heath died. A quick google search and a search of the BBC site didn't reveal anything about it at all, though...can anyone confirm this?
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04-28-2005, 03:52 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Morro Bay, CA | | | Percy.....
According to wkcr fm, Percy passed this morning, as well as Jimmy Woode, Ellington bassist, yesterday. 
Dylan |
04-28-2005, 04:50 PM
| | | | i cannot find anything about this.. |
04-29-2005, 04:38 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Maui | | | It's true, just got a forwarded Email from John Clayton. Rats. What a coupla weeks for jazz bassists. |
04-29-2005, 04:59 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Co. | | | Yeah, I got Johns mail too. Percy was getting up there. Anyone know his age?
Now Percy was a favorite bassist of many of our greatest players. Pianists, in particular, just loved his time playing.
Bill Evans was a member of Percy's fan club.
Yeah Marcus, the list is growing.
He's leaving behind his magnificent Ruggeri bass.
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04-29-2005, 05:20 AM
|  | Musical Anarchist | | Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Sutton, MA | | | Percy Heath
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04-29-2005, 05:44 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Paris, France | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Paul Warburton Yeah, I got Johns mail too. Percy was getting up there. Anyone know his age?
Now Percy was a favorite bassist of many of our greatest players. Pianists, in particular, just loved his time playing.
Bill Evans was a member of Percy's fan club.
Yeah Marcus, the list is growing.
He's leaving behind his magnificent Ruggeri bass. | As I'm reading this, the Bill Evans quintets disc 1 is on the turntable, with Percy Heath on bass... this blues, Interplay is a great tune and Percy's time is really impecable. Big loss... |
04-29-2005, 06:05 AM
|  | Journeyman Clam Artist Moderator | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Winnipeg, baby | | | My God it's been a bad stretch these last few weeks...
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04-29-2005, 07:15 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Asheville, NC | | | Just heard the blurb on WBGO. A day shy of his 82nd Birthday. What a career! He was one of the famous Tuskeegee Airmen, also.
I went to college in Wilmington, North Carolina where Percy was born. (The family moved to Philadelphia shortly thereafter). A few years back someone opened a jazz/blues club in Wilmington in his honor, named "Percy's". He came down for the grand opening.
My personal Percy faves are the Evans album, "Interplay" mentioned earlier, and the Miles' Bags Groove album. But Percy kills on eveything! I'm glad I got to see him several times. |
04-29-2005, 08:11 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2003 Location: Brooklyn | | | My God, NHOP, Percy, and Jimmy Woode..............what is happening?????????????????
I'm thankful that I saw Percy play once at the Bird festivals in Thompkins square park, with Bags and all of the Heaths.....Great player! and "Watergate Blues", what a great tune of his!
The MJQ must be jammin' their asses off in heaven now.........
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04-29-2005, 08:29 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Los Angeles | | | damn........
damn......
speechless.
gonna go put on bag's groove.....
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04-29-2005, 08:32 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: NYC | | | This is very sad news.
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04-29-2005, 08:44 AM
|  | Official Forum Flunkee | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: San Francisco, CA | | Bah... more sad news. 
Funny, I was just looking at his photo in some jazz photo book a coupla days ago and thinking that he's pretty old and remembering what had just happened with NHOP, hoping that he wouldn't go soon. Ahh well, at least he's not fighting that bone cancer anymore. |
04-29-2005, 09:03 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Co. | | | A great Life
It's a drag to lose Percy, BUT what a life. To be able to live to a ripe old age, having your two brothers on top with you all those years, traveling around the world with a fabulous bass of the quality that many of us have never had the luck to even get a chance to play. Being part of one of the most long-lived, successful groups in the history of jazz.
Percy also had a hand in the beginnings of the Be-Bop era..spending all those years on 52nd St. with the inventors of the genre...Miles, Bird, Diz, Horace...you name them!
Percy never wasted a minute of his life, that's for sure.
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04-29-2005, 09:11 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: NYC | | | There was a special running on PBS for awhile about the fire and subsequent EXACT reconstruction of Dick Cavett's house (which was an historically significant house) out east on Lawn Guyland. At the end of the show, there's a house party celebrating the Cavett's moving back in and who's at the party? Percy and his wife.
In an interview, Percy was asked what his greatest pleasures in life were and he responded "the three F's". The interviewer was perplexed, so Percy said " the first two are fiddlin' and fishin'."
Yes, Percy had a long and full life. It's sad more because of my loss, than his, if you will...
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04-29-2005, 04:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Co. | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua Yes, Percy had a long and full life. It's sad more because of my loss, than his, if you will... | I will.
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05-01-2005, 04:08 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Los Angeles | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua In an interview, Percy was asked what his greatest pleasures in life were and he responded "the three F's". The interviewer was perplexed, so Percy said " the first two are fiddlin' and fishin'." | Percy lived not too far from my parent's place on the island. He was REALLY big into fishing.
There was a great article in the NY times on him a few years back. It had a great shot of him on his boston whaler with fishing tackle ready to go...
and there was a party held for him down the street from my folks place about two years ago...... i was on the road and could not make it. Damn was i mad! Never got to meet him. a huge regret for me.
just hope he is in a better place.
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05-01-2005, 09:01 AM
|  | Student of Life Forum Administrator | | Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Louisville, KY | | | I was fortunate enough to meet and get to hang with Percy last year when the Heath Brothers played a concert here at the U. What a sweet man, and what a bunch of great stories he had to tell. He also delivered a hilarious moment after the master class the Heath bros. gave...I was carrying his beautiful bass to the elevator while we were headed to the stage to set up for the concert. Standing by the elevator was an attractive young lady he had met earlier in the day upon his arrival. He smiled at her and said, "How you doin'?" She kind of blushed and said, "I'm fine, thank you", to which Percy replied, "Well anybody with eyes can see that. How are you doing?" I almost dropped his bass I was laughing so hard....
RIP, and say hi to Niels for the rest of us. |
05-01-2005, 11:49 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Maui | | | He was one of those guys that, when you see a pic of him, you can actually hear his sound in your mind. And a beautiful sound it is, too. I still love the bassline from "Walkin' Stomp" by MJQ. |
05-01-2005, 05:16 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Co. | | | Bags
Great pic Durrl.
I sometimes get a little bugged at people who, when going to a concert or club, insist on saying: " i'm goin' to see such and such tonight" totally ignoring the fact that they're actually going to hear such and such. Well, every time I used to attend a performance of the MJQ, I always meant not only to hear, but to see them as well. They all looked so cool and classy....always tuxedos. Percy always kind of moved his jaw around when he played....I don't know how to explain, but just the visual aspect of the experience was fun.
Years later, I had the honor of working with the great Milt Jackson for a week or so, and that was a great experience!
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