Tenor saxophonist, composer, and jazz educator Jimmy Heath is a living legend in the jazz world. The great Dizzy Gillespie, paying tribute to Mr. Heath's seminal role in the development of bebop, once reportedly observed, "If you know Jimmy Heath, you know bop." A distinguished artist in his own right, Mr. Heath has also performed and recorded extensively with his two brothers, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath.

Jimmy Heath

Mr. Heath was born into a musical family in Philadelphia in 1926—the same year as fellow jazz greats Miles Davis and John Coltrane. His father, an amateur clarinet player, and mother, who sang in the local church choir, encouraged their three sons to choose an instrument and develop their natural abilities. Jimmy, the middle brother, started playing alto sax when he was 14 and, after high school, began to play in local bands and tour with bandleader Nat Towles. Early in his career, he acquired the nickname "Little Bird" for the resemblance of his playing to that of Charlie Parker, whom he idolized, but developed his own style after he switched to the tenor sax in the late 1940s.

In 1946, Mr. Heath formed his own big band, whose members included other emerging young jazz artists such as John Coltrane, Benny Golsen, and Johnny Coles. The following year he moved from Philadelphia to New York to play in trumpeter Howard McGhee's band, and in 1949 joined Dizzy Gillespie's band, where he played alongside his two brothers. Mr. Heath spent four productive years with Gillespie, who helped pioneer the bebop style (characterized by smaller ensembles and more complex harmonies and rhythm than the prevailing big band genre), as an arranger and composer as well as a player.

In 1959, Mr. Heath spent two months in Miles Davis's quintet before forming his own group. During the mid-1960s, he co-led an ensemble with trumpeter Art Farmer; their group served as the prototype for the emerging "hard bop" style, a harmonically denser and melodically more elaborate version of bebop. In 1975, Mr. Heath and his brothers realized a long-held dream by forming the Heath Brothers Band along with pianist Stanley Cowell. The Heath Brothers Band, now with pianist Jeb Patton, continues to perform to this day.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Heath has written more than 125 compositions. His songs have been recorded by renowned jazz artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Art Farmer, Dexter Gordon, Milt Jackson, Ahmad Jamal, and Clark Terry. Several of Heath's compositions, such as "Gingerbread Boy" and "CTA," recorded by Miles Davis in 1953, have become jazz standards. Mr. Heath's output also encompasses the more formal genres of quartets, suites, and symphonic works. His Afro-American Suite of Evolution (1975) for 30-piece ensemble was commissioned by the Jazz Mobile, an organization founded by pianist Billy Taylor. Other compositions include seven suites and two string quartets, and a symphonic work, Three Ears, which had its premiere at Queens College (CUNY) in 1988.

Since making his first recording in Paris in 1948, Mr. Heath has been featured on more than 100 recordings, eight with the Heath Brothers and 10 as a leader, and has received three Grammy nominations.

Mr. Heath has also enjoyed a distinguished career as a jazz educator. Upon his retirement from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, where he served as professor of music and director of the Jazz Studies program from 1987 to 1997, the school presented him with its President's Award and endowed a chair in his name. Mr. Heath continues to participate in workshops and clinics throughout the country, and last semester guest-taught a class in improvisation at Juilliard's Institute for Jazz Studies.

Among Mr. Heath's numerous honors and awards are the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America, the Living Legends of Jazz Award from the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia, and an appointment to the board of trustees of the Thelonious Monk Institute, along with the Institute's Founders Award. Mr. Heath is included with his brothers in the Philadelphia Hall of Fame.

In recognition of his lifetime of achievement as an artist and educator, Mr. Heath will receive Juilliard's Honorary Doctor of Music degree—the first the School has awarded in the area of jazz—on May 24.

—LISA ROBINSON