Old pro: Jimmy Heath is a sax player who has been around a long time and played with Art Blakey and Art Farmer and his brothers Percy and Albert as the Heath Brothers. His compositions have been recorded by many equally illustrious names. He's approaching 80 now and he has reached the point of lionization -- never a major star (how many of you have heard of him), he's now treated perhaps fawningly as a legend.

 

But the man can still blow, as he showed last week at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club, playing in front of a trio of younger children he referred to as his "grandchildren." He played mainly tenor -- always his most comfortable instrument, and this one is old and beat-up and much loved -- and also some soprano sax.

 

He has a nice, airy sound and played solos in classic bop fashion -- stating the melody of, for instance, "All the Things You Are," playing choruses again with variations on the initial phrases of each line, becoming more baroque with each pass through. His take on ""Round Midnight" was less lachyrmose than most. He played it light but not too slow, making it sound sweet and plangent rather than trying for the deep ache a lot of players like to invest in this song.

 

All the musicians were dressed for undertaking, with the exception of drummer Winard Harper (also occasionally part of a brothers act), who wore an orange print dress and brought a great deal of energy to his occasional solos. He does that thing where he bangs on a cymbal and then catches it with the same hand so that he almost but not quite stops it before there's any noise.

 

Heath clearly got a kick out of the younger guys' playing, smiling a toothy smile and calling out comments, even dancing a few steps here and there. His intro to a calypso by Blue Mitchell hinted at mortality: "He played more of my music than anyone, so I have to play his even though he's not here. Yeah, he passed on. I'm going to see him sometime. I'm in no hurry to see him but until I do I'm going to play his music.... Yeah, he split."

 

There were some younger players in the audience, including the powerful soul/jazz sax player Ron Holloway. One last chance to see how the old guys used to do it, attending to the music and drawing energy and pleasure from it.