Use
In playing the actual music, the head refers to any time the band or musician plays the theme to the song. Usually this happens once or twice at the beginning and the end of a performance. For example, many Clifford Brown recordings characteristically feature a short piano intro, the head, several choruses of solos and a recapitulation of the head followed by an outro coda. Although it most commonly is, the head does not need to be played at both the beginning and the end of a performance, and is occasionally played in the middle, for instance between solos.
Jazz musicians often give each other the "head" or "top" cue by patting their hand on top of their head, which is usually meant to make sure everybody "goes back to the head," or starts playing the head again the next time the "top of the form" comes around. On the unfortunate occasion this may be due to confusion about "where" the top of the form actually is if the musicians get off-sync with one another, or a frantic attempt to regain composure and finish the performance, as playing the head to end a piece is default jam session protocol.
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