Music: farewell to Jimmy Heath, jazz legend

Jimmy Heath , one of the legends of American jazz, died at 93 years old . The family reported that the death occurred from natural causes. Heath, nicknamed Little Bird for the influence that Charlie 'Bird' Parker had on his transition to the tenor saxophone, was a sought after saxophonist and a brilliant composer for 70 years. He worked with names like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie as well as with members of his own family, he was in fact the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.

For his musical education, Heath fed on Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Marian Anderson in addition to the music that his father, Percy, an auto mechanic who also played the clarinet, listened to and his mother Arlethia, who sang in a choir of a church. At 13 he had his first saxophone and since then he never separated from it. In the 1950s he also had problems with drugs and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for drug dealing. During his detention he freed himself from addiction by learning to play the flute and concentrating on composition and arrangement. His first leading album dates back to 1959, 'The Thumper'.