Slow & Steady Records announces the release of composer and multi-reedist Steven Lugerner’s new album It Takes One To Know One, which features drum legend and NEA Jazz Master Tootie Heath, and LA-based bassist Garret Lang. The release is a bunch of firsts for Lugerner – stretching out on straight-ahead jazz repertoire exclusively on the bass clarinet, in a chord-less trio supported by a legendary drummer. "It's another hard left turn," shares Lugerner, "an opportunity to swing and pay homage to the tradition with a living legend of the music. Tootie was always so supportive of me, and vocal about my efforts on the bass clarinet. The standard Bb clarinet was the first instrument I ever played, and the bass clarinet feels like a mansion of endless rooms to explore. Getting to build a house of music and joy with Tootie on this date was a dream come true."
The lineup and session for It Takes One To Know One was sparked by a previous recording (Altadena, 2016, Ropeadope) by acclaimed pianist and Slow & Steady Records labelmate Richard Sears. In 2013, Sears received a commission from the LA Jazz Society to write a suite of music dedicated to Tootie Heath, who mentored Sears at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, where Tootie taught for more than thirty years. “Playing in that band, and getting the opportunity to create music with Tootie was an incredible learning experience, and it seriously touched my musicianship,” recalls Lugerner.
In 2017, the Altadena ensemble had a performance at the Norton Simon Museum in Los Angeles. To make the trip from Tootie's home in Santa Fe to LA more substantial, Lugerner asked Tootie if he'd be up for a casual recording session. Since Sears' ensemble was so dense in harmony and featured multiple horns, Lugerner decided to go with chord-less trio, which inspired him “to be truer to the moment – to react to just rhythm and foundation.” Rounding out the group is LA-based swinging bassist and The New School classmate Garret Lang, who effortlessly locks in with Tootie from the first hit. “Garrett’s positive vibe combined with Tootie’s infectious humor is a very dangerous combination,” muses Lugerner.
The intention of It Takes One To Know One is to simply feel like a single, swinging set at a jazz club – no nonsense, just playin’ tunes. Lugerner forced himself to settle on five songs that captured the best moments, in particular, the joyous and invigorating sound that is Tootie Heath behind a drum set. “If I can play half that well when I’m in my eighties, I’ll be a lucky man,” says Lugerner. “Tootie is living proof that you never retire from music, that it’s with you forever.”
TRACK LISTING & NOTES:
1. The Big P – a blues written by Tootie’s brother, Jimmy Heath, that’s dedicated to their oldest brother, Percy. Lugerner’s arrangement is influenced by Cannonball Adderley’s version of the song – from the piano hits, to the two melody lines played by bass clarinet and acoustic bass.
2. Jinrikisha - off Joe Henderson’s seminal Page One, which Lugerner calls “my Kind of Blue - there’s always something new and fresh I’m hearing, even after hundreds of listens.” Henderson had a legendary presence in the San Francisco jazz scene, and Lugerner spent four years living a few blocks from Henderson’s former longtime home in the Miraloma neighborhood. Many of the Bay Area’s veteran horn players were heavily influenced by Henderson. "I loved to listen to Joe on long hikes up and down those crazy hills. You could feel his presence in the heighborhood and up on Mount Davidson."
3. How Deep is the Ocean? – ”How much do I love you? I'll tell you no lie. How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky?”
4. Isfahan – drawing from Lugerner’s inspiration of Johnny Hodges, Strayhorn and Ellington
5. Gingerbread Boy - another blues by Jimmy Heath, selected for its clever melody and playful, rhythmic hits that anchor the arrangement. “Gingerbread Boy” is also a jazz camp staple at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, fully embraced by the next generation of the music.
ABOUT TOOTIE HEATH
The youngest of the three Heath Brothers, Albert “Tootie” Heath is the consummate jazz drummer, playing with seemingly every jazz legend from John Coltrane to Cannonball Adderley, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and countless others, performing on more than 100 recordings. Self-taught, Heath received musical training from his father, a clarinetist in one of Philadelphia’s Black marching bands, as well as from his older brothers Percy and Jimmy (both NEA Jazz Masters), who were already establishing themselves in the jazz world. Still in high school, Heath was asked to accompany Thelonious Monk on the drums during his engagement at Philadelphia’s Blue Note Club. By 1957, he had moved to New York, where he had an auspicious recording debut with the legendary John Coltrane on his album Coltrane (and later played on Coltrane’s Lush Life). In 1958, Heath was the drummer for Nina Simone’s first album, Little Girl Blue.
In the mid-1960s, Heath moved to Europe but continued to play and record with jazz greats in the United States and around the world, including Cannonball Adderley, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, and Clifford Jordan, as well as playing in Herbie Hancock’s band from 1965 to 1970. In the mid-1970s he returned to the United States, settling in Altadena, Los Angeles, California, and performed and recorded with Yusef Lateef from 1973 to 1983. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Composition Fellowship in 1974.
Heath was an instructor at the Stanford Jazz Workshop summer camps for middle and high school students for more than 30 years. He has conducted clinics and workshops and performed at colleges and universities nationwide. In 2018, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America. In 2021, Tootie was honored as an National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master.