Jimmy Heath was three years younger than his bass playing brother Percy and nine years older than his drumming sibling Albert (aka ‘Tootie’), and together they could be a winning combination as these recordings illustrate. A contemporary of Charlie Parker, Jimmy Heath earned the nickname of ‘Little Bird’ to the point where to avoid unwelcome comparisons he switched to tenor sax. However, Jimmy's real forte was as a fine composer/arranger. As with Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis enlisted Jimmy in 1959 as a temporary replacement for his old friend John Coltrane. Unfortunately like so many members of his fraternity, Jimmy fell in with the wrong crowd, developed extremely bad habits and subsequently wasted five years of his life behind bars. Supposedly, rehabilitated, he resumed his career (often partnering Milt Jackson) and these represent the first four albums he cut for Riverside. With the exception of Really Big!, which has Jimmy fronting a tentette that includes Clark Terry and the Brothers Adderley, the other three titles feature Heath leading a compact sextet. Together they not only reflect his prowess as a writer – ‘For Minors Only’, ‘Picture Of Heath’, ‘The Thumper’ and ‘CTA’ (the latter not included here) – but as a first class sax man. Thought to have been an early influence on his friend John Coltrane, our Jimmy probably didn't gain his rightful exposure in an environment where Coltrane, Rollins and their ilk grabbed all the headlines. Ironically, in 1975, he achieved international recognition as part of successful jazz-funk headliners. The Heath Brothers.