Requisites…

The Real Thing ~ Louis Hayes | By Eddie Carter

This morning’s record from the library comes from the renowned drummer Louis Hayes. He’s recorded eighteen albums as a leader and is known for his work as a sideman with Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver, Oscar Peterson, and many others. The Real Thing (Muse Records MR 5125) is his third date and second with this group. It was recorded in 1977 and hit the stores the following year. The album features the exceptional talents of Woody Shaw on flugelhorn (track: A2) and trumpet (A1, A3, B1 to B3), Slide Hampton on trombone (B1 to B3), Rene McLean on alto (B2, B3), soprano (A3, B1), and tenor sax (A1), Ronnie Matthews on piano and Stafford James on bass. My copy is the original U.S. Stereo album.

Side One opens with St. Peter’s Walk by Tex Allen. Hayes introduces this scorcher in an energetic exchange with the front line. After the ensemble’s theme, Woody races through the opening solo with extraordinary energy. Ronnie’s electrically charged fingers move like a shot of adrenaline, then Louis soars out of sight in a vigorous workout. Rene is featured in the opening and closing ensemble but does not solo. Nisha by Louis Hayes is a quartet feature featuring Woody on the flugelhorn. Ronnie’s gentle introduction segues to Woody’s delicate melody. Ronnie picks up the pace in a gentle first solo that hits the mark. Woody follows with a charming sincerity that fits like a glove. Stafford sustains the thoughtful mood in the closer, while Louis’s timekeeping holds everything together ahead of the climax.

Loose Suite by Ronnie Matthews is a play on Louis’s first name. The song opens with the drummer’s razor-sharp introduction ahead of an abstract quintet melody. Rene leads off with an adventurous reading. Woody charges into the second solo with lightning-fast intensity. Louis leaves the listener’s ears sizzling with explosive fireworks preceding the reprise and ending. Side Two starts with My Gift To You by Stafford James. Slide comes on board for the sextet’s medium-fast melody. Rene digs deep into the opening statement and then steps aside for Stafford, who walks briskly in the following presentation. Louis stamps his personality on the finale with propulsive power before the sextet’s closing chorus fades into oblivion.

Jack’s Tune, aka Blue Fable, is by Rene’s father, Jackie McLean, and begins with the ensemble’s vigorous melody. Rene ignites the opening solo with a fire-breathing showcase. Ronnie comes behind him with a blazing interpretation, and then Slide follows with an aggressive statement. Louis gets the last word with a brisk workout, leading to the closing chorus and abrupt climax. Marilyn’s House by Tex Allen keeps the high-voltage exhilaration of the earlier tune, with the front line leading a fiery sextet melody. Woody starts the opening statement with joyous determination. Rene comes in next to give an electrifying presentation. Slide provides the exclamation point in a dazzling reading ahead of the restatement of the theme.

Michael Cuscuna produced The Real Thing, and the recording engineer was Chuck Irwin. The sound quality is not just good, but an enjoyable sit-down and listening experience with a wide soundstage that’s sure to please the most discriminating jazz fan. This is the only studio album the group made together. Still, they also recorded a 1977 live album, The Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble Live at The Berliner Jazztage. At the end of his liner notes, noted jazz journalist Bob Blumenthal states, “Louis Hayes no longer leads this band with Woody Shaw, but it left its mark during 1976 and 1977, and the music remains real.”

Despite the group’s short tenure, the impact of their music is undeniable. The Real Thing by Louis Hayes is one of the jewels of his discography that I’m sure will leave a lasting impression on the listener. For any fan seeking a solid hard-bop album to unwind with after a long day or evening, I invite you to check out this first-rate release on your next record-shopping trip. It’s a perfect starting point to get acquainted with one of the quintessential jazz drummers and a pleasure from start to finish!

~ The Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble Live at The Berliner Jazztage (Muse Records MR 5139) – Source: Discogs.com

~ The Horace Silver Quintet, The Oscar Peterson Trio, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet and Sextet – Source: Album liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.

© 2025 by Edward Thomas Carter

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Gene Lake was born Oliver Gene Lake, Jr. on January 12, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri. He began playing drums when he was five years old, and took lessons with Pheeroan akLaff as a high schooler at The High School of Music & Art in New York City. He attended Berklee College of Music, where he worked with Tommy Campbell, and played in local Boston bands in a variety of styles.

Gene played with his father in New York City in 1987 and 1988, then joined Henry Threadgill’s ensemble in 1990. Later in the Nineties, Gene worked with Steve Coleman, Lunar Crush with David Fiuczynski and John Medeski, Marcus Miller, Brandon Ross, David Sanborn, the World Saxophone Quartet, and Joe Zawinul.

He has recorded seven albums as a leader that includes The Oliver Lake Quartet, Dedication, and At This Time and another ten as a sideman. Outside of jazz, Lake also performed and recorded with R&B musicians Maxwell and Me’Shell Ndegeocello.

Drummer Gene Lake, who is the son of saxophonist Oliver Lake, continues to perform and record.

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Johnny Varro was born January 11, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York and began studying piano at the age of ten. During his teenage years, he was introduced to jazz by way of the Commodore Music Shop in New York City. There he met the manager Jack Crystal, father of Billy Crystal, who was running jam sessions on the Lower East Side. At these sessions he met Willie “The Lion” Smith, Big Sid Catlett, Joe Thomas, Hot Lips Page, Joe Sullivan, Pete Brown and others. The experience of sitting in for Joe Sullivan and Willie “The Lion” Smith was invaluable and soon allowed Johnny to become a hired player.

His first professional job was with Bobby Hackett touring the East Coast with his quartet. In 1954 he worked at Nick’s with Phil Napoleon and later with Pee Wee Erwin. In 1957 Eddie Condon asked Johnny to play at his club as intermission pianist, which led to his becoming Eddie’s band pianist.

For the next several years between the Condon tours, Varro worked most of the jazz rooms around New York City before moving to Miami in 1965 to work on the Jackie Gleason Show. He toured with the Dukes of Dixieland, then moved to Los Angeles, California, where he lived, played and toured for the next 14 years. He created the swing group covering the styles of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s called Swing 7.

Pianist Johnny Varro, who has recorded some two dozen albums, made a final move to Tampa Bay, Florida in the early Nineties, where he continues to play jazz festivals, jazz parties and concerts around Europe and the United States.

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Sonya Jason was born on January 10, 1963 in Wayne, Nebraska. By the age of four, she began playing piano and took classical piano lessons for nine years. Joining the school band at age ten she took up the saxophone. At thirteen she joined her first jazz band where she learned the rudiments of swing, the basic ability that all jazz musicians must possess.

Her family’s move to the Southwest enabled Sonya to join the Apollo High School band in Phoenix, Arizona, then voted Arizona’s leading jazz band. It was here that she first heard the passionate recordings of Latin saxophonist Gato Barbieri, and began studying the bebop stylings of Charlie Parker, gaining further inspiration from the saxophone work of Phil Woods and David Sanborn.

She won the Phil Woods Scholarship offered by Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Two years of liberal arts study at Mills College in Oakland California and private lessons with bebopper Hal Stein led to her move to Boston. While at Berklee she studied privately with saxophonists Joe Viola, Jimmy Mosher, George Garzone and Herman Johnson. She honed her arranging skills with Herb Pomeroy and Grammy award-winning arranger Robert Freedman. After graduating summa cum laude from Berklee in 1985, Sonya returned to Arizona to begin her professional career.

Gigging all over Arizona she gained versatility working with bands of varied styles, jazz, latin, top 40, reggae, rock, classical, big band swing, and show bands. In 1987 she formed a quartet that performed as opening act for Natalie Cole, Richard Marx, Chuck Berry, Ramsey Lewis, Janis Siegel, Smokey Robinson, Spyro Gyra, Lionel Hampton, Mose Allison and the Stanley Clarke/George Duke Project, to name a few..

In 1988 she released her debut recording Secret Lover on her Saja Productions label. in December 1988. In 1991 she moved to Los Angeles, California and signed with Warner Music Discovery and two years later her second release Tigress.

In addition, Sonya appeared in the Showtime movie, Lush Life, starring Jeff Goldblum and Forest Whitaker, and was featured in two cable music specials, Music and the Biz and Hurry Up and Wait.

Relocating to the San Francisco, California Bay Area in 1999. Since moving she has recorded a few albums, served as musical director and arranger for theCoastal Theatre Conservatory’s presentation of Cinderella with over a hundred youth of all ages, and was band director and orchestrator of This Side Of The Hill Players.

First-call saxophonist Sonya Jason carries on a thriving music teaching studio, continues to perform as a soloist for several bands and orchestras, tour and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Benny Strickler was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas on January 9, 1917 and took music lessons as a pre-teen and later played in a town band. After graduating high school, he became a professional musician and played with several territory bands in Arkansas and the Southwest. In 1935, with wife Frances in tow, he joined the migration from the Dust Bowl to the Golden State.

Benny established himself as one of the top trumpeters in Los Angeles, California. He played with bands led by Ben Pollack, Joe Venuti, Vido Musso and boxing champ/string bassist Max Baer. He even got an invitation from Artie Shaw, which he turned down.

He recorded his first recordings in 1937 with the Choir of Brass led by vocalist/pianist Seger Ellis. In 1941 he went to work with Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys and along with Danny Alguire and Alex Brashear and reedman Woodie Woods they shaped the swinging sound of the band between 1941-42. World War II broke them up with some enlisting, others drafted, however, Benny was exempted due to tuberculosis.

His illness worsened and was ultimately forced to quit playing. He returned to Arkansas, checking into a Booneville sanitarium. Trumpeter  Benny Strickler, who played with the top Western Swing and Traditional bands, played sporadically until he succumbed to the tuberulosis and died on December 8, 1946.

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