The Heath Brothers: Smiling Billy Suite Pt. 1 and Smiling Billy Suite Pt. 2
From Marchin’ On [Strata East, 1976]
I don’t have many Strata East titles, partially because a lot of them are fairly hard to come by, but mainly because most of the label’s output was spiritual jazz which I’m not a huge fan of. However, there are plenty of solid Strata pieces, many of which are quite funky and have been sampled in the past. The Heath Brothers is no exception, making plenty of collectors’ want lists and wall of fames, almost exclusively for the “Smiling Billy Suite” which sprawls itself over four tracks on the entire B-side. The bass line is where it’s at, and it shouldn’t take long for most hip hop heads to figure out that it was sampled on Nas’ “One Love.” I acquired this record recently off a tip from a friend who said that a shop had just gotten it in and was planning to sell it for the pretty reasonable price of $80. I was a bit reluctant at first having just dropped $80 for the Marlena Shaw piece I wrote about the other week, but he convinced me to snag it.
The Heath Brothers were comprised of Jimmy Heath (b. James Edward Heath, 25 October 1926, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; composer, arranger, tenor and soprano saxophones, flute), Percy Heath (b. 30 April 1923, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, Southampton, New York, USA; bass) and Al “Tootie” Heath (b. Albert Heath, 31 May 1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; drums). Each had distinguished careers in jazz during the 50’s, as the brothers collaborated with each other in various forms up until 1974 when Percy’s regular band broke up, and the brothers decided to grab pianist Stanley Cowell and release their first album, Marchin’ On. They proceeded to release three more albums with Columbia and two with Antilles.
I believe the brothers still play today.
Follow Us On Twitter
actually, percy died recently…
but i think jimmy and tootie keep on playing together…
i live in athens, greece and had the chance to see them live when they played here for a week a couple of years ago…
it was a beautiful experience…
thanks for an amazing spot!
…an amazing post, that is!
One of the most memorable events in my life was getting to hold Percy Heath's bass for him during a sound check. He is missed….
my bad.
RIP
strata-east was the best label of the entire decade (70s)
nice.
Quality….I never heard pt.1 of this before.
(Pt.2 was also used on Redman's "Sooperman Luva III")
Bass line in part1 from "Scratchy Noise" by The Herbaliser. Just in case you were tortured by the sample placement, like I was.
Part II gets all the attention because it's been sampled but Part I is pretty great as well. Too bad Part III isn't nearly as sublime.
You should also check out the very first "Smiling Billy":
Jimmy Heath: Smilin' Billy
From Love and Understanding (Muse, 1973)
It's where they originate the melodic theme that gets replayed in the later suites.
Wow – again, thank you for the beautiful part 1 – both the Nas and Redman tracks are very special to me.
trigon health insurance <a href="http://4471.lpaqs.crabdance.com/trigon-health-insurance.html">trigon health insurance</a> trigon health insurance // overseas medical insurance <a href="http://2091.lpaqs.crabdance.com/overseas-medical-insurance.html">overseas medical insurance</a> overseas medical insurance