DBMITW: Tootie Heath

OK, there’s always time to do one of these. Here’s Tootie Heath playing with Dexter Gordon:

Tootie was living in LA when I was in school down there- my combo leader Dwight Dickerson was in his group, and on one occasion they brought him in for a master class. My main takeaway was his response to bassist Jesse Murphy’s question about strategies for playing without a drummer, a mode of music making Tootie described as “like masturbation.”

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