Charles Heath concerts

About Charles Heath

Charles “Rick” Heath IV is a Chicago-born jazz drummer, bandleader, educator, and producer whose attention-getting credential is a decade-plus stretch in pianist Ramsey Lewis’s working band. His own quartet anchors a regular Andy’s Jazz Club residency, placing a player heard in large concert settings inside a close-range Chicago club schedule. Expect a drummer-led program shaped by jazz, blues, gospel, and Latin experience.

From Shaw to a Chicago quartet

Heath began working professionally in Chicago at 14, then attended Shaw University on a music-performance scholarship. At Shaw he formed his first quartet, Touch of Jazz, for political events and private engagements; after graduation, he returned home and worked with figures including Von Freeman, Ken Chaney, Malachi Thompson, and Robert “Babe” Irving III. The Charles Heath Quartet appears in Andy’s listings from 2010, the earliest dated quartet documentation located for this profile. His first independent recording project is identified as Conversations, an undated independent release in the available biographies.

Recorded markers beyond the bandstand

Conversations (undated, independent) is Heath’s leader statement in the sources: Jazz Showcase describes it as the first independent project by the Charles Heath Quartet. Its presence matters because Heath’s public discography otherwise reads chiefly through ensemble work, studio appearances, and a heavy calendar of Chicago performances. It establishes the quartet as a recording vehicle alongside its club life, even as detailed credits, label information, and a release date remain unlisted in the available documentation.

Taking Another Look (2011, Hidden Beach Recordings) placed Heath in Ramsey Lewis’s Electric Band with guitarist Henry Johnson, keyboardist Michael Logan, and bassist Joshua Ramos. MusicBrainz lists the original ten-track album’s September 20, 2011 United States release; Lewis’s official biography describes its reworked Sun Goddess material and five newer compositions. In that setting, Heath’s role moved from local bandleader to the drummer powering Lewis’s return to electric jazz-funk repertoire.

VII (2019, Ropeadope) extended that partnership under the Ramsey Lewis & Urban Knights name. The album credits Heath with Johnson, Tim Gant, and Ramos, plus guests Dee Alexander and Maurice Brown; it was recorded at Chicago Recording Company and released September 27, 2019. Its 11-song program moves through “Tequila Mockingbird,” “The Shape of My Heart,” “And I Love Her,” and “Armando’s Rhumba,” giving Heath a place in a polished Chicago ensemble that connects jazz standards, pop-song interpretation, and electric-band grooves.

Ramsey Lewis and the Chicago circle

Lewis proved the central long-term collaborator: Columbia College Chicago says Heath toured with the pianist from 2010 until Lewis’s 2021 retirement, while Lewis’s site names Heath in both the Electric Band and Urban Knights lineup. Heath’s credits also include work with Philip Bailey, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Donald Byrd, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Broom, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As a presenter, he built Jazz’n on the South Side at ETA Creative Arts Theater, bringing artists such as Willie Pickens, Ari Brown, and Dee Alexander into a weekly South Side series.

Residency rhythm and room scale

The live record points toward a Chicago-centered working-band experience, with recurring engagements across club, festival, and civic stages. Andy’s listed Heath for two sets on July 5, then again on August 12, August 19, August 26, and September 2, 2026; pianist Isaiah Jones Jr.’s calendar also records six Charles Heath Quartet dates at Andy’s between June 17 and July 22. At Jazz Showcase, a 170-seat room, the quartet held a five-show run from May 30 through June 2, 2024. Heath also led a 45-minute quartet program of Johnny Griffin material at Chicago Public Library’s West Chicago Avenue Branch on April 21, 2026, with Jeremiah Hunt, Theodis Rodgers, and Isaiah Collier. Those specifics suggest a musician who returns repeatedly to listening-room sets while retaining a public-programming role in the city.

Four Wednesdays at Andy’s

The latest documented album-length release featuring Heath is VII, from 2019; his 2026 activity centers on the Charles Heath Quartet’s Chicago appearances. CrowdMate dates place him at Andy’s Jazz Club on August 12, August 19, August 26, and September 2, with 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. sets each Wednesday. Andy’s own calendar confirms the same two-set pattern for all four dates. For a visitor, that creates eight chances across four weeks to catch the residency in its home setting.

Three entry points

Start with “Jungle Strut,” for Heath inside Lewis’s revived electric-band approach; “The Shape of My Heart,” for the Urban Knights’ songbook-minded side; and “Tequila Mockingbird,” for a concise snapshot of the 2019 ensemble’s instrumental chemistry.

Sources

1. Charles Heath - Faculty — Columbia College Chicago
2. Charles Heath Quartet — Jazz Showcase
3. Charles Heath brings jazz back to the South Side — WBEZ Chicago
4. Release group: Taking Another Look — MusicBrainz
5. Biography — Ramsey Lewis
6. VII — Ramsey Lewis on Bandcamp
7. Calendar — Andy's Jazz Club
8. Isaiah Jones Jr. — Isaiah Jones Jr.
9. The Dearborn Express — Jazz Showcase
10. International Jazz Day Performance: Meet Captain Walter Dyett and the Music of Johnny Griffin — Chicago Jazz Alliance