Last night I headed to Dizzy’s at Columbus Circle to hear the fabulous octogenarian drummer Roy Haynes and his “Fountain of Youth” quartet. My pal John Moore came with me. John was a Roy “virgin”, but I had seen him perform a few times before – including once in Sydney when SIMA brought him out as a mere seventy-something – and I was keen to repeat the experience.
I’ve volunteered to write a review for the SIMA website, which I will do at some point between dusk and dawn this week amid class assignments and sleep. But let me just say here that it was so exciting to see a man still energised and excited by his art, by the interplay with the young musicians around him, and by the crowd, who swelled and soared with him like a wave. He had all the strut and verve of a 25-year-old. Whatever he’s got, we should bottle it.
