"We're glad to be here," said Jimmy Heath onstage, "and to be old, but still not cold." He played the line for laughs, and got them. But the saxophonist also explained the absence of Percy, eldest of the Heath Brothers, by acknowledging that he was "going through some treatments." It was an intimation of mortality even more poignant than the black-and-white photos on the walls or the auction of jazz relics the following day at Rose Hall. The Vanguard itself is a jazz relic and would be laudable for survival alone. But during a week that saw a different working band every night—and not a single empty seat—the club reaffirmed that survival is the means,... More >>>