New York Post; New York; Mar 18, 2000; CHIP DEFFAA;

Copyright New York Post Corporation Mar 18, 2000

ROY HAYNES The Blue Note, 131 W. Third St., (212) 475-8592; $35 cover/$5 minimum; 9 and 11:30 p.m. Through tomorrow.

IT'S like a dream!" exclaimed drum master Roy Haynes at the Blue Note, where he's celebrating his 75th birthday through tomorrow. That's the way the audience felt too.

Haynes is leading an all-star quartet with Chick Corea on piano, Kenny Garrett on sax and Christian McBride on bass.

These four pros are not straining, just making music as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Oh, maybe Garrett was pushing a bit too hard at night's start, but soon he relaxed into the groove that Haynes and the others established.

Whether stretching out on a ballad like "Night and Day" or romping through a playful calypso, the four were having as much fun as the audience.

I've never heard more satisfying work from Corea, 58, whose acoustic jazz Tuesday night had a sweet, almost childlike innocence to it.

McBride, 27, far and away the outstanding bassist of his generation, compels attention. And Haynes coaxed more lyrical work from Garrett than I've heard when he's played for Miles Davis or as a leader.

Haynes' drumming is so deft, so imaginative, so musical, he is consistently interesting. One part of Tuesday's set which I'll never forget came when he carried the high-hat cymbal down to the front of the stage.

There, dancing in place and humming along joyfully, he beat out calypso rhythms, spurring Garrett on to his best work. Corea grabbed a pair of mallets and began playing on the strings of the piano, creating harpsichord-like sounds.