I adore the drumming of Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath. What he brings to Herbie Hancock’s Fat Albert Rotunda, for example, is pure perfection. ‘Wiggle Waggle’ and ‘Tell Me A Bedtime Story’ are two tracks I’ll never tire of listening to.
He recorded and performed with a veritable who’s who of jazz. And is on lots of albums I love. And as well as being part of the famous Heath Bros trio, he even lead a few sessions under his own name. Such as these two:
Actually Kawaida is really a Mtume album. And only nominally under Albert’s leadership. Mtume was ‘Tootie’s’ nephew (son of his elder sax player brother, Jimmy).
I’d meant to interview him for my putative work on music of the early 1970s. I missed that chance, more fool me! Damn… another legendary figure exits the stage.
The above has been reissued on CD, by Xanadu. But his best known work is most likely that with either his brothers, or the notable jazz giants he recorded with, like Dexter Gordon, Coltrane, and Herbie Hancock, amongst many others.