LIVE: Kevin Hays Trio @ The Falcon, 08/28/2022

The only problem with spending my summer doing Shakespeare in the park is that it took me away from my usual place of refuge, live music. With September – and all the Greater Nippertown jazz associated with it – coming up fast, I thought it would be a good idea to do a “warm-up gig”, keeping it as simple as possible. Well, a piano-trio date is supposedly as simple as it gets, but the devil was in the details laid out by Kevin Hays.

Although the NYC native has been a fact of life for many years, Hays doesn’t get the love that flows freely to young guns like Joey Alexander and Christian Sands. Happily, Smoke Sessions has spent the last few years reminding us about the ongoing genius of hardcore players like Renee Rosnes, Vincent Herring, and Nicholas Payton, among many others. They teamed Hays up with bassist Ben Street and uber-drummer Billy Hart, and the result was All Things Are, one of the best releases of 2022. Hays brought another killer rhythm section to Live At The Falcon in Marlboro, and the results were impeccable.

Al Foster is one of those aforementioned Smoke Sessions legends. He just put out his own SS release Reflections and Hays plays piano on the date. Matt Brewer did not, but he’s on the same level as Street when it comes to smokin’ PHAT bass lines, so Hays certainly didn’t have to worry about the floor he’d be dancing on. Hays started the set in the clear with a thoughtful meditation that led into “All Things Are” (Hays’ breakdown of the Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein classic “All The Things You Are”), augmented slightly by cymbals made to hiss by Foster’s brushes. Then Brewer stepped in, and everything stepped up a notch.

Hays loves adding layers on top of layers, slowly building the beauty and complexity until you’re looking at the musical equivalent of a stained-glass window. He went from “All Things Are” to a bopping-and-weaving take on Wayne Shorter’s “Capricorn” that made its loud intentions known even as the trio kept things totally chill. While he did throw in his own composition “For Heaven’s Sake”, it was mostly about interpretation for Hays, turning Lennon & McCartney’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” into a touching ballad, and morphing “Scrapple From The Apple” into his own raucous piece “Unscrapulous.”

Drummers are a lot like muscle cars: Most of them get meaner as they get older. Al Foster is one of the nicest people I’ve met in this business, but behind the kit (even a kit he’s not pleased with, as on this night), Foster is an absolute demon. That doesn’t mean he was bringing the unnecessary noise a la Carmine Appice; it means Foster gets so dialed into whatever piece he’s playing, he becomes part of it. He was at his hushed best on “Heaven’s”, linking up with Brewer to give the piece just enough of what it needed, and Foster was in Beast Mode on the Miles David closer “Sippin’ at Bells.” For his part, Brewer gave a textbook lesson on how to fatten up whatever music the band’s playing. His solos on “Friends” and “I Remember April” were spot on, and his foundation work allowed Foster to stick and move.

Hays dedicated the lovely ballad “Song for Peace” to the late Tony Falco, continuing the series of tributes to the late club owner. “This place was built on absolute love,” Hays enthused, nailing Falco’s passion for music and art. Among other things, Falco launched the Falcon for the purpose of letting artists be their best selves. We saw the best of Kevin Hays on this night, as a player and a leader. It was pretty simple, when you get right down to it.

Photo Gallery by Rudy Lu