Louis Hayes is an upbeat kind of guy. And why shouldn't he be? He's an active player on the contemporary jazz scene at a time in his life when most musicians are storing away their drumsticks for good.
But Hayes is not about to slow down. Not with his Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band about to headline Murfreesboro's Main Street JazzFest on May 5. His enthusiasm for his life's work is palpable from the moment you hear his sing-song greeting, "Louis Hayes here!
" In a 50-year career that has defied the odds and proved to be one of jazz music's longest-running winning streaks, Hayes has managed to stay afloat through some of the genre's most turbulent times. At the urging of his parents, Louis Hayes began his tenure as a drummer/piano player at the tender age of five. He soon discovered that the drums were his true passion, and he eventually gave up the piano altogether.
"My cousin, Clarence Stamps, taught me how to read," said Hayes. "All I had to do was practice playing in school." It was the school band that provided Hayes with his first exposure to playing as part of an ensemble.
Within three years, he would be sitting in with much more experienced players in some of Detroit's most notable nightclubs. "In 1955 I was playing at a bar with Grammy award-winning reed player Yusef Lateef. When the club owners found out I was only 18, I lost the gig.
" It wouldn't be long though, before Hayes' youth and relative inexperience would be all but forgotten. By 1956 Hayes had moved to New York City, and soon after, offers to play with many of jazz music's major players began rolling in. "I wanted to grow as a musician and really become a part of the New York music scene," Hayes said.
Soon, New York's jazz heavyweights began to take notice. He was eventually asked to join the Horace Silver Band, a group with whom he recorded five albums in the 1950's. In 1959 Cannonball Adderley bassist Sam Jones saw Hayes perform at New York's historic Birdland nightclub and immediately asked him to join Cannonball Adderley's successful quintet.
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