Having earned his stars and stripes with the likes of Oscar Peterson, Cannonball Adderley, McCoy Tyner, John Coltrane and Horace Silver (just to name a few), at 84 Louis Hayes is the last of the living and active drummers to come out of the hard bop era. Even more important is that he hasn’t lost a beat, demonstrating perfect swing on this recent session with Abraham Burton/ts, Steve Nelson/vib, David Hazeltine/p and Dezron Douglas.
His high hat is humming under Nelson’s vibes with Burton blowing smoke rings on the sleek “Roses Poses” and his cymbal caresses the pulse on the cool bopper “Creeping Crud”. He still packs a punch, riding the tom toms as Burton sears through “Crisis” and is crisp as celery on “Oxygen”. Vocalist Camille Thurman glows around the vibes and Hazeltine’s ivories on the pretty “I’m Afraid The Masquerade is Over” and is bold on the uptempo take of “Where Are You?”. Just show how important sessions like these are, who else could play Lee Morgan’s “Desert Moonlight” as a contemporary of the artist? It’s a geographical thing-you had to be there. He’s got was no living drummers can claim-to play the drums with no leaven of rock and roll-a true bopper. And it shows.
Savant Records