Louis Hayes drums 1937 Detroit MI
Before he was 16 years old, Louis Hayes was leading a group in several Detroit clubs. In the mid '50s Louis made the move to New York to replace Art Taylor in the Horace Silver quintet, and about three years later he joined the Cannonball Adderly quintet with which he remained intil 1965. Between 1965 and 1967 Louis worked with Oscar Peterson and then formed a series of groups under his own name. Among his sidemen were Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron, and James Spaulding. He returned to Peterson's group in 1971 for about a year. He formed the Louis Hayes sextet in 1972, and eventually it became the Louis Hayes- Junior Cook Quintet, and next, the Woody Shaw-Louis Hayes Quintet. These groups played successfully in the U.S. and Europe. Several times the Shaw-Hayes group acted as a host group for Dexter Gordon when he visited the U.S. After Woody Shaw quitl the group, Louis continued leading it as a hard bop unit. Hayes plays in a compelling, very hard-driving style, with a tendency to push the beat and to goad the soloist with freqent fills.
Albert Heath drums 1935 Philadelphia Pa
In 1958, Albert "Tootie" Heath left Philadelphia to join his brothers Percy and Jimmy, in New York, where he became very active in the bop movement taking place at that time. He worked with J.J. Johnson from 1958 to 1960, and the Jazztet from1960 to 1961. Around this time Al recorded with Jimmy Heath, Nat Adderley, Johnny Griffin, Mal Waldron, Kenny Dorham and others. In 1965 he decided to move to Scandinavia, where he lived for three years, often working with Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew at the Montmartre Jazzhus in Copenhagen. After returning to the States, Al played for Cedar Walton and Yusef Lateef, and with Billy Taylor for Jazzmobile in New York City. From mid '70s he divided his time between working with the his brothers in the U.S. and working in Europe. In the late '70s, he finally settled in Los Angeles and dropped out of music entirely. By 1985 Tootie was back, playing on the West Coast as a sideman with the Jazztet for several years. Heath's inventiveness, and sensitivity to the playing of others, has made him one of the most respected and sought-after bop drummers working today.
