James Edward Heath (born October 25, 1926), nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger and big band leader. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.
Heath originally played alto saxophone, but, after the influence of Charlie Parker on his work for Howard McGhee and Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1940s, he earned the nickname "Little Bird" (Parker's nickname was "Bird") and he switched to tenor saxophone.
During World War II, Heath was rejected for the draft for being under the weight limit. From late 1945 through most of 1946 he performed with the Nat Towles band. In 1946 he formed his own band, which was a fixture on the Philly jazz scene until 1949. John Coltrane was one of four saxophonists in this band, which played gigs with Charlie Parker and also at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Although Heath recalls that the band recorded a few demos on acetate, it never released any recordings, and its arrangements were lost at a Chicago train station. The band dissolved in 1949 so that Heath could join Dizzy Gillespie's band.
Two Friends may refer to several different things:
Two Friends was a medium-sized wooden sailing ship that served the British government for transporting troops to garrisons across the British Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. On 22 October 1805 Two Friends was wrecked on the coast of Cape Breton Island with the loss of three lives.
The convoy was a large collection of shipping which was collected in the English port of Falmouth with the intention of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to supplement the garrison in Quebec with soldiers of the 100th Regiment of Foot. In addition to this unit, replacements for regiments already in Canada, the families of the soldiers being sent abroad, several government officials and numerous private passengers also took passage.
The ships were a mix of small warships, government owned transports and private merchantmen gathered together with the hope of safety in numbers from the large number of French privateers which were operating against British shipping at this time. The disadvantage to this plan was that should some crisis befall the convoy, the damage would be substantially more serious than if it had occurred amongst independently sailing ships. The convoy departed Falmouth on 29 August, expecting to make landfall in Canada sometime towards the end of September.
Two Friends is a 1986 Australian television drama film directed by Jane Campion. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.