Jimmy Heath: Phone Interview with Ken Dryden, 2005
We previously heard Ken Dryden’s interview with Sonny Rollins, and his 2011 interview with Jimmy Heath. Ken is a long-time jazz radio host based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he has been back on the air since 2019. He has also been very active as a print journalist since the late 1980s, and has written liner notes for numerous albums. In the course of his busy career, Ken has had the opportunity to interview many jazz artists by telephone, and we will share those interviews once in a while. Today and in another post we will enjoy his conversations with saxophonist and composer Jimmy Heath. If you ever had the opportunity to interact with Jimmy Heath (1926-2020), you know that he was a smart and witty person. I’ll share my memories of him at some point.
Ken called Jimmy on December 5, 2005. To start with, Jimmy talks about an upcoming concert with Slide Hampton, Frank Wess, and Bill Charlap’s trio. At 1:26, Ken prompts Jimmy to describe at some length how he outlines a big band arrangement at the piano, and eventually enters it on his Macintosh computer. At 4:25, Jimmy talks about how musical ideas come up at unexpected moments. The topic at 7:20 is the Monk Institute, which Jimmy was involved with from the beginning. At 8:40 Ken asks about Jimmy being a judge on the Monk competitions. At 10:15, Jimmy talks about his history of teaching, which goes all the way back to his Philadelphia days., whenJimmy Garrison studied with him privately. Jimmy talks about his parents at 11:50.
At 13:20, Jimmy mentions that he near finishing his autobiography. It was published in 2010. At 14:00, Ken reads through a list of people with whom Heath has recorded. The list is from the master jazz discography that I have told you about before. This leads to a discussioon of Jimmy’s forthcoming recordings in various settings, small groups and big band. From 18:30 on, Jimmy talks about other forthcoming projects and awards coming up in his 80th year. He turned 80—that is, completed his 80th year of life— on October 25, 2006. Here is the conversation:
After you have heard the interview, you will enjoy reading the article below that Ken Dryden crafted out of this conversation:
THANK YOU KEN for another fine interview. Soon we’ll hear some more.
All the best,
Lewis
This is golden. Thank you. 🙏
I love the respect that Mr. Dryden showed, using "Mr. Heath," and "thank you, sir" at the end of the interview, rather than assuming the familiarity of first name basis." Dryden is a fine interview, asking well prepared questions and waiting patiently for an answer, probing when he think he might get more.