Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band featuring Jaleel Shaw (saxophones), Martin Bejerano (piano), David Wong (bass)

Thelonious Monk once described Roy Haynes’ drumming as “an eight ball right in the side pocket.” Jack DeJohnette calls Roy’s percolations “a rare combination of street education, high sophistication and soul.” Pat Metheny says Haynes is the “father of modern drumming” and “a national treasure.” Lester Young summed up Haynes’ genius best perhaps when the two shared a bandstand in October, 1947, exclaiming, “Haynes, you sure are swinging!” For over 50 years Roy Haynes has influenced and innovated, shaping some of the greatest recordings in jazz while altering the very fabric and direction of jazz improvisation with his mercurial, intelligent, joyous drumming. Freeing jazz’s borders, infusing its lifeblood, steering it towards greater freedom and more distinctive expression, Roy Haynes is a national treasure who continues to forge new paths well into his ‘70s, dumbfounding jazz lovers, not to mention Father Time and Mother Nature.

Ramsey Lewis regrettably has to cancel his engagement due to complications during his recovery from a non-life threatening surgical procedure. All reservations for Ramsey Lewis Trio have been transferred to the Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band. If you are a ticket holder and for any reason do not plan to attend, we urge that you cancel your reservation online to make your place available for someone else. Unclaimed tickets will be redistributed thirty minutes before showtime.

Who else can claim residencies with Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Lennie Tristano, Stan Getz, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny? “It is weird isn’t it?” Haynes muses. “It is amazing for me, turning 79 as I am. I couldn’t see this far in advance that I would be still playing at my age. I’m constantly getting calls for record dates, I don’t know what the hell it is. I like to do my own thing where I can play anything I want to play, interpreting it my own way. Years ago, when I was playing with other people, my job was to make them feel good. When I stopped doing that it seemed like I got more attention - my own concept came out.”

Calling his music “hard swing,” Haynes has recently led a series of groups such as appeared on 2001’s BIRDS OF A FEATHER (Dave Holland, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett) and 2003’s LOVE LETTERS (Holland, Kenny Barron, Scofield, Joshua Redman). Add to that short list of explosive, inspired outings this live recording from New York’s Birdland titled FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH which bows on Dreyfus Jazz February 24. With his 20-something band of Martin Bejerano (piano), Marcus Strickland (tenor and soprano saxophone and bass clarinet), and John Sullivan (bass), Roy Haynes is influencing the next generation just as he has those of the past.

Recorded in December, 2002, FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH is reverential, explosive, an celebratory, exploring music Haynes has included in his sets for years with a handful of new additions chosen by the group. Haynes happily admits that this group catches fire often, obviously following his lead. Selections by Monk, Metheny, Oliver Nelson, and Irving Berlin provide tremendous give and take, fireworks on full display.

“I have recorded a few of the tunes before but I wanted to perform them again, documenting this great band,” Haynes explains. “Recording live you can really capture some magic moments, and there are plenty here. ‘Question and Answer’ has some great stuff in the vamp when I am playing accents with the bass drum and the cymbals. On ‘Green Chimneys,’ where I stop and the horn and piano play solo, and we come back in – that is some wild stuff. The crowd at Birdland really digs it.”

On the second night of recording, the group had additional inspiration from an unlikely source -- a major snowstorm blanketed the East Coast! When news of the storm came in that morning, the producers worried that the heavy weather would mean a small turn-out. At the last moment, word was circulated inviting some lucky New York jazz fans to attend the show for free. As a result, the audience was jam packed with an unusually high
concentration of young people and musicians. The enthusiasm of the audience is evident throughout this electrifying recording.

Working with this younger group when not touring with Birds Of A Feather, Haynes says the musicians found him, not the other way around. “Strickland was playing with Milt Jackson’s big band, he came up to me at the Blue Note and told me he wanted to play with me. I hired him a year later when the opportunity arose, and he recommended the other guys, John Sullivan and Martin Bejerano. They have played with me for the last three summers and the audiences love it everywhere we go.”

The connection between master and students is beyond notions of age or deference. The quartet meet in a musical space that is timeless, Haynes elevating the musicians’ performances; matching their fire stroke for stroke, thrill for thrill.

There is an affinity that happens between us that you can’t find with just anybody.” FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH opens with “Greensleeves.” An homage to Coltrane perhaps, but the group strikes it anew with an emotive, clamoring energy. The album includes a triptych of Monk standards, “Twinkle Trinkle,” “Ask Me Now,” and “Green Chimneys,” the songs’ zigzagging logic providing some eruptive and forceful improvisations.

“The way I do the Monk songs is definitely different,” Haynes says. “We cut out certain bars in ‘Twinkle Trinkle,’ for instance, and add a lot of different accents. I don’t like to give all the details. We rearrange the music, almost treat them as if they were my tunes. ‘Green Chimneys’ as well.” Oliver Nelson’s “Butch and Butch,” which Haynes recorded with the
saxophonist/arranger for his 1961 classic, BLUES AND THE ABSTRACT TRUTH, is an airy, dynamic performance, allowing a breather from the febrile, feverish land of Monk. Where Strickland and Bejerano wowed the winter’s eve crowd on earlier tracks, here Sullivan solos (short and sweet) with a sense of assurance belying his youth. The ballad “Inner Trust,” by longtime Haynes’ pianist Dave Kikoski follows, though the drummer’s triumphal approach is more like a whirlwind than a pool of reflection. A funky street march opens the darting lines of “Green Chimneys” before the group launches it on a dazzling ride of interlocking jabs, singular shouts and gospel worthy exclamations. After a lush reading of Berlin’s “Remember,” FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH closes with Pat Metheny’s “Question and Answer.”

“I played on the original QUESTION AND ANSWER album with Metheny and Dave Holland back in ‘89,” Roy recalls. “I like that melody; it really knocks me out. I like a lot of Pat’s writing.”

Roy Haynes’ perennial focus on the music has not only led to a cherished spot among jazz fans and musicians, but to a mantel full of much deserved awards. Along with honorary doctorates from Berklee and the New England Conservatory, Haynes picked up the JAZZPAR prize in ‘94, the French Chevalier des l’Ordes Artes et des Letters in ‘96, Zildjian’s American
Drummer’s Achievement Award in ’98, and the PAS Hall of Fame Award. And as in years past, Haynes recently topped the 2003 Downbeat Critic’s Poll and Reader’s Poll. But for a musician whose gifts have only slowly become recognized as innovations and continual inspiration, Roy Haynes remains an almost shy man concerned more with his music than reaping accolades. “Chan [Parker] used to tell me that I was Bird’s favorite drummer. He would never tell me what he liked about my playing but years later I figured it out. I had that swing thing. I had that thing on the cymbal, that swing we called it in the old days, it wasn’t just a word, it had a meaning back when Bebop was new. My way of doing it was right in the pocket. That is what kept me out there.”

With FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, Roy Haynes is still right in the pocket, leading the charge.

Fountain of Youth Band

Martin Bejerano, a native of Miami, Florida, has been active as a professional musician since the age of fifteen, when he began his performance career playing George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" concerto with the Mexican-American Bi-National Symphony while still in high school. A graduate of the esteemed New World School of the Arts, he received a full scholarship to attend Florida State University, where he studied classical piano with Leonidas Lipovetsky, and jazz piano, composition, and arranging with Bill Peterson, whom he cites as one of his most important influences. He then went on to receive a Master’s degree from the University of Miami, also under full scholarship. During this time, Martin won third place in the nation in the prestigious 1999 Great American Jazz Piano Competition, and was chosen to attend the famed Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Colony.

Jaleel Shaw, alto saxophonist, has performed with such world class artists as Clark Terry, Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Arturo Sandoval, Nicholas Payton, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and the Count Basie Orchestra.
He is currently a member of the Charles Mingus Big Band, the JazzReach education group, and performs in various clubs in New York City and abroad with various groups, including the Jaleel Shaw Quintet.

Jaleel grew up in Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with saxophonist Rayburn Wright, Robert Landham, and jazz instructor Lovette Hines, whose students have included Christian McBride and Joey Defrancesco.

He also had many mentors in Philadelphia, including John Blake, Byard Lancastar, Alfie Pollit, and Grover Washington Jr. Jaleel attended the High School for Creative & Performing Arts and later transferred and graduated from George Washington High School.

Upon graduating from high school, he received a full tuition scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. Jaleel attended Berklee for four years and earned a dual degree in Music Education and Performance in 2000. While attending Berklee, he received the Billboard Endowed Scholarship for Outstanding Academic and Musical achievement (1998), two Woodwind Dept. Chair Awards, The Outstanding Student Teacher Award, and The Boston Jazz Society Award (1999).

Upon graduating from Berklee, Jaleel received a scholarship to attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he received his Masters in Jazz Performance in May, 2002. He was also a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition that year. Jaleel has performed internationally in Australia, China, London, Paris, Italy, Finland, Africa, Scotland, Amsterdam, Austria, Spain, and Portugal, as well as many cities in the U.S.

He can be heard on recent recordings from the Mingus Big Band, The Either Orchestra, The Count Basie Big Band, and Jeremy Pelt Quartet. Jaleel joined Temple University as a part time instructor in fall 2003, and currently performs with the Mingus Big Band and with the Jaleel Shaw Quintet.

He recorded his first Album for the Fresh Sound in February of 2004.

Bassist David Wong was born and raised in New York City. In 2004, he graduated from the Julliard School in classical music. He has studied with Orin O’Brien (New York Philharmonic), Ron Carter, Ben Wolfe, and John Clayton.
For the past two years as part of the Eric Reed Trio, Mr. Wong has performed in Switzerland, Scotland, the Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles), the Algonquin Hotel (New York City), and with Jazz at Lincoln Center and many other venues worldwide.
He has also performed with Wynton Marsalis, John Fadis, Illinois Jacquet, Christian McBride, Leroy Jenkins, Paula West, and Mark Gould (Metropolitan Opera) to name just a few. In the summer of 2000, Bejerano decided a move to New York City was in order to further develop his career. The move turned out to be a good one, and, in less than a year, he was asked to join the quartet of legendary jazz drummer and Grammy award-winning artist Roy Haynes. In 2004, their recording Fountain of Youth was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album--Martin’s first recording on a major label. In January 2002, Martin also joined internationally acclaimed guitarist Russell Malone’s quartet, and continues to tour and record with both these groups.

Employing a serious technical command of the piano, a highly modern harmonic and rhythmic concept, and a commitment to lyricism and musicality, Martin has continually garnered critical praise across the world. Drawing on a multitude of musical genres, Bejerano has created a unique style that has the inherent quality of always continuing to evolve. Having performed with the likes of the Christian McBride Band, Kenny Garrett, Lonnie Plaxico, Jimmy Heath, Ignacio Berroa, Mingus Big Band, Ira Sullivan, Marcus Strickland, and even trading choruses with the legendary Chick Corea, one can easily gain a sense of Bejerano’s formidable talent on the keyboard. Martin has performed at most of the major jazz festivals, clubs and venues around the world, and is proud to have toured with “Jazz Reach”, a non-profit organization that presents multimedia concerts for school children across the country, educating them on the history of jazz music as an American art form.

In 2006, producer and Reservoir record label owner Mark Feldman heard Martin perform at the Kingston Jazz Festival, approached him after the show, and soon after offered to produce Martin’s debut CD as a leader. Recorded and engineered by acclaimed engineer Jim Anderson at Avatar studios in New York City, Martin’s debut CD Evolution/Revolution was released in May 2007 to high critical praise. It quickly shot up to number nine on the Jazz Week Jazz Album Chart, which lists the top 50 jazz albums based on airplay.

Currently Martin resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Sherleen. He is featured on several recent recordings, including Evolution/Revolution, Roy Haynes’s Fountain of Youth, Russell Malone’s Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and Lonnie Plaxico Group’s Live at Jazz Standard.

The RPI Jazz Ensemble will be opening for Roy Haynes

RPI Jazz Ensemble

The RPI Jazz Ensemble is a student organization dedicated to
education and performance of the art of traditional jazz music in
a big-band setting. In past years they have played many arrangements and original works in swing, bebop, cool, latin, and more.
Their director typically chooses their pieces to match the ability of
the band, however, requests are always encouraged. New members
are welcome to audition.