Legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath is the featured guest artist during the inaugural "Jazz Week" concerts sponsored by the Denison University department of music. Heath will appear with the Denison Faculty Jazz Quintet at 8 p.m. on Thursday (April 6) in Burke Recital Hall for a concert of original and jazz standards and with the Denison Jazz Ensemble on Friday (April 7). The concerts are free and open to the public.

Kicking off the week is a performance by the Denison University Jazz Combos, directed by Tom Carroll, coordinator of jazz studies. The small group jazz concert will be at 8 p.m. in the Bandersnatch, the student coffeehouse located in Huffman Hall on the east residential quadrangle.

Heath will give a masterclass from 10:30 a.m. until noon on Friday (April 7) in Burke Hall which also will be free and open to the public. Jazz Week will end on a high note with Heath joining the Denison Jazz Ensemble, directed by Pete Mills at 8 p.m. on Friday (April 7) in Swasey Chapel. This concert will feature music by composers such as Horace Silver, Tadd Dameron and Sonny Rollins.

Heath has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years from Howard McGhee and Dizzy Gillespie to Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis. He has performed on 125 record albums, composed more than 100 pieces, many of which have become jazz standards in addition to his three suites, two string quartets and a symphonic work. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1980 for "Live at the Public Theatre," a performance with The Heath Brothers, in 1994 for "Little Man Big Band" and for the liner notes he wrote for CDs of John Coltrane and Antonio Hart in 1995.

Upon his arrival on the New York jazz scene, Heath was given the nickname "Little Bird," which was an acknowledgement of his artistry and similarity to Charlie "Yardbird" Parker. He has performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall, a concert hosted by Bill Cosby to establish The Jimmy Heath Chair at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, New York. Heath has taught at Queens College for 10 years, earning its Presidential Award. He has been profiled on CBS's Sunday Morning and interviewed for the oral history program of the Smithsonian Institution. The Jazz Foundation of America gave him its Life Achievement Award in 1997.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

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Barbara Stambaugh

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