THE DETROIT JAZZ PRESERVATION CONCERT SERIES CELEBRATES ACCLAIM JAZZ BASSIST MARION HAYDEN

Bassist Marion Hayden

Many people know jazz bassist Marion Hayden for her impressive career, whether she's leading a band, working alongside renowned jazz musicians, teaching music, or guiding up-and-coming jazz talents. However, it's rare to find a concert dedicated exclusively to Hayden's own compositions. Hayden was honored as a composer on Sunday night at the Detroit Jazz Preservation Concert Series. I need to confirm with the series’s founder trombonist, Vincent Chandler, if this was the first time an honoree has performed in the series. Hayden assembled an outstanding group featuring Steve Woods and Stephen Grady on saxophone, Vincent Chandler playing trombone, Jordan Anderson at the piano, Tariq Gardner on drums, and Tim Blackmon on trumpet. Hayden wrote the arrangements and narrated a ninety-minute concert featuring eight of her original compositions. The performance started with four movements from her Phillis Wheatley Suite: "Middle Passage," "Woik," "Duality," and "From a Flicker to a Flame." The band executed the songs with remarkable ease and cohesion. No single solo stood out more than the others. This was the most evenly balanced band that I’ve witnessed in a long time. Blackmon's playing was sharper than the creases in his dress slacks, and Grady possessed an old-school elegance. His blowing was consistently clean and exact. Gardner, the youngest in the lineup, plays drums with a journeyman’s maturity, knowing when to be subtle and when to blow the barn doors open, as shown by his precise solos on “The Drummmm” and “Teddy’s Dance/H.P. For Life.” “A compelling demonstration of his development as a jazz drummer. Anderson was the band’s linchpin, acting as a facilitator whose high rhythmic IQ pushed all his bandmates to heights they may not have known were achievable. This is a jazz pianist’s top trait. As for Hayden, she faced a tough challenge during the performance, having to cope with hip pain, forcing her to perform seated on a stool. Despite the physical discomfort, she managed to keep the packed audience captivated with one mic-dropping solo after the other. Her high swing aptitude allowed her to direct the band and walk the bass astonishingly for 90 minutes, all while seated—an achievement only a skilled jazz musician like her could pull off.