From the big-band era through bebop and fusion, Heath’s career straddled seven decades of jazz history
Jimmy Heath, the US jazz performer and composer whose career spanned seven decades, has died of natural causes aged 93. His death was confirmed to the
New York Times by his grandson Fa Mtume, who was by his side at his death along with other members of the Heath family, including Heath’s wife of 60 years, Mona.
Beginning in the 1940s, Heath played with jazz orchestras, and was a key part of the generation of players who bridged the classic big-band style with the more exploratory and freeform mode of bebop.