“Thus ‘Every tub on its own bottom’ as the old timers were fond of saying.
“Unaware of this, one might think that Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley would be the indispensable element in his group and with his sound absent it would not stand on its own. However, here another Law of Improvisational Music comes into effect. Change any one man and you change the group sound.
“This album is a neat illustration of both of these premises. It is the Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley group with Julian absent and it has had a shift in personnel: Yusef Lateef is the saxophonist instead of Julian. The result is an interesting listening experience. The swing and the drive, as well as the cooking feeling of soul, is retained, and yet there is a different flavor to that which is cooked, thanks to the presence of another (and different) personality whose basic recipes are the same but who adds his own touches to them for an end product with different flavor.
“This album, however, is really Lou Hayes’ album; his first as a group leader and it illustrates a very fundamental premise of his musicianship. There’s been a theory long prevalent in jazz circles that drummers make poor group leaders because once on their own with no check rein, they are unable to resist the temptation to dominate. Apparently most of them cannot prevent the drums from running away with it. Yet these same men, placed in a position where someone else has the authority and the responsibility of controlling them, are superb and imaginative musicians.
“Louis Hayes, 21 year old Detroit musician, is an exception to this rule. On his first date as a leader he is, just as he always has been with the groups in which he has worked, the drummer first. An imaginative musician with intelligently constructed solos and with sensitive awareness of what the other musicians are doing at all times, but the drummer for the band above all.
“This didn’t really surprise me, when I first heard the test of this LP. Some months back, I did an interview with Philly Joe Jones, who is really the modern drummer with the most potential influence of any. One of the very few young drummers that Joe would talk about was Louis Hayes. When I asked him to name young drummers who impressed him he named two of his own students and Louis Hayes.
“Although it is quite true, as Philly Joe says, that drums can be played with a snare drum and a cymbal, the modern drummers today, when they are functioning correctly, have added new dimensions to drumming. The maintenance of a steady, pulsating, swinging beat with a deep groove no matter what the timbre of the piece of equipment being played at any instant, the usage of the sounds of the snare, rims, tom-toms and a variety of cymbal tones to pucntuate, reinforce and emphasize what the soloist is doing, is one of the marks of modern drumming. Quick relating to the pitch, the rhythm and the shape of the solo in order to anticipate, set-off, inspire and to contrast with it is another. Governing the cross rhythms and counter rhythms and in turn setting them, like an engineer at a master control panel, is still another. These things take gifts first, gifts and instinct. But for the real growth, the real flowering, they take musical thinking. Louis Hayes has all of these and will one day be among the very top leaders on drums. He’s pushing that level right now.
“On this album he has the assistance of Sam Jones (bass), Barry Harris (piano), Yusef Lateef (sax) and Nat Adderley (cornet). They are sympathetic to his feeling for music, meld together into a single organism when playing with a high degree of flexibility. Lateef contributed ‘Hazing’ while Nat Adderley penned ‘Sassy Ann’; Barry Harris wrote ‘I Need You’ and ‘Backyard’. Julian Adderley contributed ‘Rip De Boom’ and Sammy Red Kyner wrote ‘Teef’.” (Ralph J. Gleason. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Louis Hayes (dr), Nat Adderley (cn), Yusef Lateef (t-sx), Barry Harris (pi), Sam Jones (bs)
A1. Hazing
A2. Rip De Boom
A3. Teef
B1. I Need You
B2. Back Yard
B3. Sassy Ann
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