Jazz Articles about Louis Hayes

Louis Hayes: Serenade for Horace

by Niccolò Lucarelli
May 30, 2017

La lancetta del jazz torna indietro all'epoca d'oro dell'hard bop, nella New York febbrile e colorata degli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta. Per il suo omaggio al maestro Horace Silver (con il quale esordì nel 1956 sostituendo Art Taylor), Louis Hayes ha realizzato un album di carattere, musicalmente sublime e concettualmente profondo, interpretando il repertorio dello stesso Silver. A tre anni dalla scomparsa di Silver, Serenade for Horace è un sentito e commosso ricordo di uno dei pianisti più ...

Louis Hayes: Still Moving Straight Ahead

by Joan Gannij
May 23, 2017

Louis Hayes will turn 80 on May 31 (2017), but the party is still goin' hearty. He started celebrating this milestone back in February with an 18-day tour that began in Barcelona and concluded in jny: Amsterdam. It was mostly one-nighters with three nights in jny: Athens, two in jny: Paris and jny: London appearances at the usual places, like Fasching in jny: Stockholm, the Sunset Club and Ronnie Scott's. I caught the jny: Detroit native during his final concert ...

Oscar Peterson: Exclusively For My Friends

by Bruce Lindsay
September 18, 2015

An 8-CD set of recordings from the great Oscar Peterson, beautifully recorded, sumptuously packaged and accompanied by a 60-page booklet full of informative writing: Exclusively For My Friends is a treat for ears and eyes. All of the recordings on this set were made between 1963 and 1971. The sessions took place in the home of producer and MPS Records owner Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in Germany's Black Forest--Peterson and Brunner-Schwer were friends and the pianist often visited the label owner's ...

Louis Hayes: Return of the Jazz Communicators

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 11, 2014

Much like what has happened with Smalls Records, the cottage industry that Smoke jazz club started when they debuted their own record label last fall has continued to grow into a viable commodity. So too, there is common ground to the look and feel of each release, even as the color scheme and the music itself changes. For the label's 5th full release, they have documented a November 2013 set led by the mighty Detroit drummer Louis Hayes and his ...

Sonny Clark: Dial "S" For Sonny

by Greg Simmons
December 14, 2013

Original copies of Blue Note 1570--Dial “S" For Sonny--are among the rarer Blue Note records, often changing hands for thousands of dollars for even a mediocre copy. That's an awful lot of scratch for a fifty-six year old piece of pressed vinyl and a cardboard sleeve. Fortunately, there are better ways to hear pianist Sonny Clark's debut recording for the fabled label. The Music Matters series of two-disk, 45 rpm vinyl records is winding down after close to one hundred ...

Louis Hayes Quartet: San Diego CA, May 10, 2011

by Robert Bush
May 29, 2011

Louis Hayes Quartet Saville Theatre, San Diego City College San Diego, CAMay 10, 2011 Jazz legend Louis Hayes, a significant progenitor of modern percussion since the early 1950s, visited San Diego's Saville Theatre on May 10, and, with an elite group of local musicians, delivered a blistering set of post-bop, mainstream classics to an enthusiastic, sold-out crowd. Hayes, 74, a native of Detroit, first gained national prominence as a sideman with ...

Louis Hayes: The Time Keeper

by John Patten
August 6, 2009

If drummer Louis Hayes intended to recreate the classic sounds of, well, Louis Hayes recordings on The Time Keeper, he succeeded. In a set of tunes that includes two penned by Hayes, two by saxophonist Abraham Burton, and two by pianist Horace Silver for good measure, Hayes reminds why he's been a leader--and a leading sideman--for so many years.

As a time keeper, Hayes is impeccable. Never as boisterous as Art Blakey or as subtle as Philly Joe ...