Aug. 29--The world of jazz has produced more than its share of great families.
From the Joneses (Elvin, Thad and Hank) to the Cohens (Anat, Avishai and Yuval) to the Marsalises (Ellis, Wynton, Branford, Jason and Delfeayo), jazz often courses through bloodlines and across generations.
Few such dynasties are more warmly regarded than the Heaths, the late bassist Percy Heath having flourished for decades in the Modern Jazz Quartet and saxophonist Jimmy Heath still going strong at 88.
Eighty-year-old drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath stands as the baby of the siblings, and he proved as nimble on his instrument as he was quick with a quip Friday night at Constellation, on North Western Avenue.
Though Chicago has heard Heath in various settings through the years, this one was particularly memorable, for he was sharing the stage with two younger and obviously reverential artists of significant stature. Ethan Iverson is best known as pianist of the Bad Plus, a trio that has brought jazz sensibilities to a pop audience; and bassist Ben Street has collaborated with several major figures, from saxophonist Lee Konitz to guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel to pianist Danilo Perez.
To their credit, Iverson and Street clearly conceived of this performance as a showcase for Heath, the least celebrated of his brothers. So while Iverson played plenty of piano and Street did not stint on melodic invention, each went out of his way to make sure that even Heath's most delicate brushstrokes were not obscured by anything else.
Much of the repertoire derived from the trio's "Tootie's Tempo" album of 2013, and some of the most beautiful playing emerged in ballads, Heath's drum work as smart and snappy as his dapper bowler hat and red bow tie. He opened Kurt Weill's "Speak Low" playing tambourine, articulating multiple rhythmic lines with a degree of clarity and precision one might not have thought possible on hand-held percussion. When he turned to drums, he reminded listeners what earthy swing is all about: not volume or speed or aggression but an elasticity of beat and a subtlety of phrase that one spends a lifetime learning to produce.
In Eubie Blake's ancient "Memories of You," Heath's ethereal work with brushes evoked the romance of an earlier, less noisy era in jazz. Pianist Iverson responded in kind, crafting long legato lines and gorgeously voiced chords, with bassist Street indulging in tremolo effects one probably wouldn't encounter from him in many other contexts.
Not everything, of course, was quite so dreamy. Heath declined to offer softly undulating backbeats in Antonio Carlos Jobim's "How Insensitive," the drummer's driving rhythms more redolent of the Philadelphia streets of his youth than the white sandy beaches of Jobim's Rio de Janeiro. And one would be hard-pressed to name many other drummers who could dispatch 1920s rhythms with the vigor and authenticity of Heath's every turn of phrase in James P. Johnson's "The Charleston."
And then there was the stand-up (or sit-down) comedy. Heath bantered whimsically with the only youngster in the house, who looked to be about five. "Go back to sleep," Heath told the boy, implying that the kid couldn't possibly have been interested in hearing jazz.
But then Heath invited the boy up to the bandstand and gave him a gift: a pair of new drumsticks and an assurance that the child, too, would grow up to become a great drummer.
Surely the boy will never forget this evening. Nor will anyone else in the house.
Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.
Albert "Tootie" Heath, Ethan Iverson and Ben Street play at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave.; $15-$20; constellation-chicago.com.
hreich@tribpub.com
