June 17, 1916- November 9, 1991
Lancelot Henry Stuart Hayward was one of Bermuda’s most accomplished and best-known jazz pianists.
Self-taught despite being blind from infancy, he played with most of Bermuda’s most popular bands of the post-war era and was also in demand as an accompanist by many top singers who came to perform in Bermuda, such as Marvin Gaye, Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan.
He spent the last 25 years of his life in New York City, where he was a regular jazz club performer, playing with names such as Buddy Rich, Mongo Santamaria and George Benson. He also appeared on television and radio in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan.
Lance Hayward was born in Spanish Point on June 17, 1916, to Henry and Olivia Hayward. He was one of five children with two brothers, Hadley and Hammond, and two sisters, Cecile (Williams) and Dorie (Trott).
Although not born blind, by the time he was almost a year old, Hayward’s parents noticed that “Lancie” did not seem to pay much attention to things around him. A visiting American doctor diagnosed him as having juvenile glaucoma and began treating him. However, the doctor died soon afterwards and with no available treatment, Hayward’s sight eventually deteriorated, leaving him totally blind.
Bermuda at the time was not only racially segregated, it was a place where blind people were often neglected and hidden from public view, receiving no formal education and subsequently little prospect of employment.
Hayward’s parents sent him to a neighbour’s home to learn basic arithmetic and spelling and determined to be independent, he played cricket, football and other games with neighbourhood children—and even learned to ride a bicycle.
He was also surrounded by music—Henry played the clarinet, Olivia, the guitar, his brother, the cornet, and sister Cecile played the piano. By the age of six, Hayward had learned to play many tunes by ear on the piano.
At 13, he was sent to the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, where he learned Braille and received the academic stimulation he craved. Bermuda, however, still treated him as helpless on his return three years later, and music became the outlet for his frustrations. He began playing in churches and his first job as a professional musician was with bandleader Al Davis.
He studied with Joseph Richards, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, who taught him discipline and classical technique. He built a reputation as a talented and reliable musician and became a fixture around the Island’s nightclubs.
He formed the Hayward & Hayward Vocal Ensemble with Robert Hayward, a distant cousin. They wrote and produced shows, which the group performed around Bermuda. The Ensemble toured Toronto and Montreal in 1949 and recorded an album, The Hayward & Hayward Vocal Ensemble, in New York in 1950.
Hayward later formed an all-male chorus, the Mu-En Chorale, and was a vocal coach to popular Bermudian singers Violeta Carmichael and Gene and Pinky Steede.
Hayward married schoolteacher Mary Jackson in 1940, but the couple struggled to make ends meet as work dried up for local musicians during the Second World War.
However, in 1946 the Imperial Hotel opened the Sea Horse Grill and Hayward’s quintet— trumpeter Mansfield Allen, drummer Truman Tuzo, saxophonist Nathaniel Proctor and guitarist Leon “Beezey” Blakeney—became a regular fixture, featuring regularly on ZBM’s Saturday night radio show, ‘Live from the Sea Horse Grill’.
Although Hayward had residencies at smaller hotels, the larger hotels wouldn’t hire him regularly, claiming that because he was blind, he could not read music to play for their top overseas acts. But when they called him in an emergency, his superb ear meant he was able to quickly learn whatever was required and the likes of Carmen McRae, Arthur Prysock, Sarah Vaughan and Joe Williams almost always requested his services when they played in Bermuda.
In the winter of 1957, Hayward went to Jamaica with drummer Clarence “Tootsie” Bean, guitarist Milton Robinson and bassist Max Smith. They proved a popular act at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay for the next four years.
It was there, in 1959, that they impressed Chris Blackwell, an ambitious young British-Jamaican who recorded them for his fledging record label. Lance Hayward at the Half Moon, a live album of jazz standards, became the first release on what was to become Island Records, one of the world’s most famous labels.
In 1966, frustrated by racial prejudice and the attitude of hotel owners towards local musicians, Hayward moved to New York City, leaving his family—which now included son Stuart and daughter Sylvia—in Bermuda.
Within six months, Hayward had a job at Fox’s, a hotel on Long Island. From 1967-1971 he had a regular spot at West Boondock, before establishing himself with club owner Jim Smith in Greenwich Village, first at Jacques-in-the-Village and then at the Village Corner, where he played regularly for 16 years until his death.
Hayward went on to play with names like Buddy Rich, Billy Taylor, George Benson, Mongo Santamaria, Nancy Wilson, Howard McGhee and Bill Lee (father of filmmaker Spike Lee). He also taught jazz piano and voice and continued to take classical piano and organ lessons himself. The Lance Hayward Singers, a group of blind and sighted singers he formed in 1984, still performs to this day, often using his original arrangements.
When he died from complications of duodenal cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital, aged 75, on November 9, 1991, Lance Hayward’s obituary was carried in the New York Times.
After his move to New York, Hayward maintained his connection to Bermuda, with regular visits back home. He was a cricket fan and avid supporter of St. George’s Cup Match team.
His contribution to Bermudian music was recognised with several awards including the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour in 1980 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bermuda Arts Council in 1988. In 1985, he became the first Bermudian to perform as a featured artist at the Bermuda Festival. In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into the Bermuda Music Hall of Fame.
Besides Lance Hayward at the Half Moon, his other recordings include A Closer Walk, by Lance Hayward & Friends (1984); Hayward & Hinton, with legendary jazz bassist Milt Hinton (1987); and Killing Me Softly, with bassist Lyn Christie and drummer Tootsie Bean (1987).
