Day Dream | Duke & Strays Live: Works By Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn

In his recent memoir Chasing the Masters, drummer and composer Phil Haynes divides jazz practitioners into two parallel tracks, the traditionalists and the modernists. He sees his own career as an attempt to bridge the two tracks, at once imbibing the lessons of the past while pushing forwarded into the unexplored future. Those efforts have not always met with the approbation of the jazz cognoscenti, however.

“It’s as if modernists and traditionalists share many of the very same heroes,” he writes, “yet draw vastly different lessons from them.”

While his adventurous nature and free improvisational instincts would lead many to place Haynes firmly in the modernist camp, his work with the Day Dream trio is evidence of his wide-ranging gifts. The trio borrowed its name from a piece by Duke Ellington, who Haynes, somewhat surprisingly, cites as the prime instigator of the modernist explorers. Ellington, after all, is an iconic figure that any modern-day traditionalist would surely claim as, if not one of their own, then at least a model for the very tradition to be adhered to. Haynes notes, "Listen again to Duke's ‘Ko-Ko,’ Money Jungle with Max Roach and Mingus, his recordings with Coltrane, or many moments alone at the piano amidst his orchestra, and Ellington's modernism becomes clear."

On their third album, Day Dream – Haynes, pianist Steve Rudolph, and bassist Drew Gress – delve deep into the repertoire of Ellington and his frequent collaborator and fellow compositional icon, Billy Strayhorn. Due out November 8, 2024 via Haynes’ Corner Store Jazz imprint, Dukes and Strays Live bears out Haynes’ contention, revealing the vital experimentation roiling just underneath the surface of that renowned Ellingtonian elegance. The album, recorded live at Bucknell University (where Haynes is a longtime member of the faculty), consists largely of well-known classics – the oft-recorded “Take the A Train,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Lush Life” and “Perdido” are all represented – but each provides occasion for profound and revelatory investigation, never suggesting their vintages or familiarity.

The decision to stick to an all-Ellington program on the concert that became Dukes & Strays Live was not undertaken lightly. A Day Dream performance is a rare occasion, after all – the trio has released two prior recordings, which also happen to contain almost the entirety of the music they’ve played together. There have been no tours, barely even the odd one-off gig in the interim aside from a sole private house concert the night before the recording dates.

These gatherings are all the more precious now, given the health issues faced by the trio mates in recent years. Both Haynes and Rudolph have struggled with hand injuries that limit their ability to play. Shortly after Dukes & Strays was recorded, Rudolph suffered a stroke that left him with limited mobility. Listening back to this album became a bittersweet undertaking for the pianist, who feared that he’d never be able to regain the abilities so beautifully showcased here. Fortunately, Rudolph appears to be well on the way to a full recovery, having returned to the stage in March 2024. But the hard work of physical, occupational and speech therapy required make the already challenging logistics of getting these three together even more daunting.

It was Rudolph’s achingly delicate touch on the keys that led to the focus on Ellington and Strayhorn, Haynes recalls. “Steve and I have always had great chemistry, but I began to notice that every time he'd play something by Ellington or Strayhorn it would move me in a way that other things might not. That feeling persisted through the years, so when the idea came about to make a third album I suggested we try this. It ended up being so much fun. The band remains in the tradition we established on the first two recordings, plus a live energy and playfulness that is an absolute gift.”

Whatever camp you happen to align with, whether it be modernist, traditionalist, or some sect therein, there’s no mistaking the spirit of past, future, and most importantly the immediacy of now in the Day Dream trio.