Jazz Band 1976 line-up featured the Philadelphia based Heath Brothers Jimmy (sax), Percy (bass), and Albert (drums), with Stanley Cowell (piano). The group played local jazz clubs and traveled to New York.
Jimmy, dubbed ‘Little Bird’ after jazz great Charlie Parker, formed a band in Baltimore in 1977 featuring Doris Robinson and Gordon Watkins (vocals), with Wilbur Campbell, and Walt Dickerson (drums). The group performed as house band at Lloyd Randolph’s Blue Room in the York Hotel on Madison and Dolphin Streets. They performed at the 1st annual Baltimore Jazz Festival on June 1, 1979 along with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet and some local bands at Towson State Stadium. Most band members also took part in the Sunday jam sessions hosted by the Left Bank Jazz Society.
Watkins went on to a successful Broadway career. Jimmy presented Jazz Clinics to local aspiring musicians. He went on in the ‘80s to tour worldwide with the Phillip Morris Band – an assemblage of world-class musicians. Dickerson released a solo LP in 1977 “Peace” which was a Downbeat Magazine Critics Top Choice.
