Drummer Roy Haynes, 83, has worked with pretty much everyone who's ever been anyone in the evolution of jazz - from Lester Young in the 1940s, through Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane and up to Pat Metheny and beyond - so playing with him is a tough call. Here he has put together a young band who share his drive, his soulfulness and his attention to detail.
One of Metheny's most evocative tunes, James, figured memorably in the quartet's repertoire, along with some bebop standbys and coolly swinging new material. Through it all, Haynes powered the themes and the speculations of his soloists with soft mallet-patterns, hi-hat whispers, snare hisses sliding on and off the beat, and fitfully busy cymbal grooves. His drums worked like another melody instrument - one that imparted an unobtrusive forward motion to the whole enterprise.
The saxophonist, Jaleel Shaw, began as a brittle, short-phrase postbopper and warmed into a lissom, melodically devious improviser as the show developed. Bassist David Wong got the full house's attention (not always easy for practitioners of his instrument) with a subtlety of touch, timbre and structure that reflected Haynes' own.
But some of the most fascinating contributions came from pianist Martin Bejerano, a New York regular with the drummer for some years, now breaking out on his own. A studious, preoccupied performer, bent over the keyboard like the late Bill Evans, Bejerano delivered a series of jewel-like solos, combining a dogged, probing lyricism with a sensitivity to each song that sporadically looked back at its original character, but through the prism of his own. The audience recognised what he was doing, and let him know how much they liked it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/03/jazz
