Louis Hayes The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band, as part of the Cap Jazz Series, Saturday, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University. Tickets: $35/$32, 604-990-7810, capilanou.ca/centre.
A member of the exclusive club of American jazz greats, Louis Hayes is as humble as he is talented.
Just consider who Hayes' contemporaries and collaborators were during hard bop and modal jazz's pioneering era: Horace Silver, Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and John Coltrane.
"It was a very important time in my life," recalls Hayes, in a phone interview with the News from his hotel room, ahead of his gig in North Vancouver on Saturday. Hayes' tribute to the music of the great Cannonball Adderley Quintet takes place at Capilano University, home to a nationally acclaimed jazz studies program. During his formative years in 1940s Detroit, Hayes absorbed the music through osmosis. His father, a big Duke Ellington fan, would play the drums and piano, while Hayes' mother also knew her away around an upright.
"When I was coming up that was before TV so (living rooms) definitely had pianos in them," says Hayes. The drums were a natural fit for the teenage jazz prodigy who knew it was a passion because nobody forced him to practise. "You learn and grow on your own; it's up to you. After you learn a certain amount, you are your own -pretty much after kindergarten," says Hayes. Earlier this week he imparted that wisdom on some elementary school students, while touring some schools in Vancouver.
"They are just like kids all over the world where you go, they barely know what a trumpet is or a bass is," observes Hayes, noting how key it is for parents or educators to introduce instruments early in life.
Looking back Hayes acknowledges he took some risks to get the ultimate reward: making it in New York as a part of a top-billed jazz act.
"New York is the Mecca," he says. Before he reached the Big Apple, and the big time, an underage Hayes was playing the club circuit in the fertile music ground of Detroit.
"It wasn't fine, but I was doing it anyway," says Hayes of his stealthy moves back then, with a chuckle. An 18-year-old Hayes got a call in 1956 from Silver, an influencer of hard bop jazz, asking if Hayes would join the great Horace Silver Quintet.
Hayes figures he was championed for the slot by fellow Detroit son and jazz musician Doug Watkins.
"Whatever he said (to Silver) I have no idea," says Hayes, his humbleness showing through again.
Clearly it was the opportunity of a lifetime for Hayes to jump in and join Silver while he was up and coming.
"He was at the time one of the main young artists that was making history in the world, and a prolific writer of music," recalls Hayes. "So, it was a wonderful beginning for me and him." The art of improvising and making the music your own through chord changes, at the core of bebop jazz, resonated with Hayes. In 1959 Hayes moved on to join Cannonball Adderley, propelling the quintet to jazz musical heights and timeless recordings through 1965.
"It was very creative, we did a lot of travelling," says Hayes, reflecting on that time in his career. "It was a very warm and close relationship we had as a group. That's why it latest so long."
As for his two-time collaboration with Peterson, Hayes sings his praises. "Oscar is one of the major forces in this art form and he's a Canadian," says Hayes. "It was a wonderful experience travelling and recording with who we used to call OP."
In leading the The Cannonball Legacy Band, Hayes pays tribute to alto sax legend Adderley and a great era for jazz music. "It's an honour. And it's wonderful to be born at a time and come together playing with one of the great artists in the world, and puts you on a level yourself that makes you a bigger person," explains Hayes.
The Cannonball Legacy Band features Hayes on drums, Grammy Award winning Vincent Herring on alto sax, preeminent young trumpeter Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, acclaimed pianist Rick Germanson and multi-talented Dezron Douglas on acoustic bass.
At 78 years old, Hayes is showing no sign of slowing down. As for what keeps the Riverdale, N.Y. resident energetic, Hayes says, "Now that's a difficult question for me to answer."
"I'm not a person that has purposely tried to stay youthful and go to the gym and workout and all these things. I just try to live my life. Luckily I'm this age and I feel fine pretty much every day."
