Louis Hayes’ Reflection on the Bebop Era

Louis Hayes on the cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Artform Revisited is a new album from Savant Records of a combo led by drummer Louis Hayes. His rhythm section consists of pianist David Hazeltine and Dezron Douglas on bass. The front line players are Abraham Burton on tenor saxophone and vibraphonist Steve Nelson, each of whom is absent on one of the album’s ten tracks.

The “artform” of the title is bebop. Hayes began his career as a member of the Horace Silver Quintet. Over the course of his career, he would go on to play and record with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Cedar Walton, Sonny Rollins, and Woody Shaw (to name more than a few). For the most part, the album reflects on different approaches to bebop as the genre evolved.

While the title clearly denotes an examination of the past, I fear that, in the arrangements on this album, those reflections are not as sharp as the originals. The performances are dutiful enough, and there are any number of imaginative improvisations. However, there is still a sense that the edgy drive from the last century has not sustained into the current one. I fear that, at best, this album sent me back to revisit the original sources for many of its tracks.