Louis Hayes Quintet with Nat Adderley and Yusef Lateef.

This Jazz Feature album is a rather rare one and it's the debut recording as a leader of drum master Louis Hayes. Louis Hayes was just 21 when he recorded this date on April 26,1960. He was by then working steadily with Julian "Cannonball" Adderley and he chose musicians that he enjoyed playing with and of course 3 of them were also working with Adderley. Louis chose Nat Adderley on cornet, Barry Harris on piano and Sam Jones on bass. The other important member was an early mentor of Louis' and the man who gave him his first gigs. That man was the great Yusef Lateef. Yusef is heard here exclusively on tenor saxophone and his big dark sound is one of the album's highlights. Louis wisely chose music not associated with the Adderley Quintet but selected the tunes for themselves and that fact marks this date as distinctive. This is a great debut for a most talented young man. Louis didn't record again as a leader until the mid-70's. Louis Hayes and company equals high quality Jazz!