Louis Hayes - At Onkel Pös Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976 (Live) '1976; 2019

Tracks list

In 1976, when At Onkel Pos Carnegie Hall was recorded, hard bop was viewed as
nostalgia-based heritage music by the young lions of American jazz. But for
drummer Louis Hayes, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, trumpeter Woody Shaw,
pianist Ronnie Matthews, and bassist Stafford James—whose paths had
crossed and recrossed in bands led by Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Cannonball
Adderley—hard bop was still the staff of life.

By turns raw and blazing, flowing and balladic, At Onkel Pos Carnegie Hall
sounds like it was made during hard bops pomp. Recorded live at the famously
louche Hamburg club, the performance was taped for broadcast by German radio
station NDR. Previously unreleased, it still hits the spot.

The two CDs have just seven tracks between them and a total playing time of
approaching two hours. As those facts suggest, the album is a loosely structured
blowing-session with plenty of time for extended solos. With a lesser band, that
might have resulted in a you had to be there vibe. But with musicians of this
caliber, practically every minute is a delight.

Two months after At Onkel Pos Carnegie Hall was recorded, the band got together
in New York City, augmented by percussionist Guilherme Franco, to record
Ichi-Ban (Timeless, 1976). In addition to the title track, Pannonica and
Moontrane were repeated from the Hamburg set list. Despite the extra weeks
during which band and material had bedded down, the live version here has the
edge over the studio recording.

Unlike the mortals who make it, great music never passes, it just carries on
maturing. Stafford James and Louis Hayes are still with us, too, and in 2017,
just days before his 80th birthday, Blue Note released Hayess muscular tribute
to his onetime employer, Serenade For Horace.

Tracklist:
 01. Louis Hayes - All the Things You Are (Live) (22:46)
 02. Louis Hayes - When Sunny Gets Blue (Live) (12:34)
 03. Louis Hayes - Moontrane (Live) (19:09)
 04. Louis Hayes - Pannonica (Live) (11:29)
 05. Louis Hayes - Ichi-Ban (Live) (18:20)
 06. Louis Hayes - Moment to Moment (Live) (17:36)
 07. Louis Hayes - Four for Nothing (Live) (13:06)

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