Roy Haynes

Roy Haynes was born in Boston, March 13, 1925, and was keenly interested in jazz ever since he can remember. Primarily self-taught, he began to work locally in 1942 with musicians like the Charlie Christian inflected guitarist Tom Brown, bandleader Sabby Lewis, and Kansas City blues-shout alto saxophonist Pete Brown, before getting a call in the summer of 1945 to join legendary bandleader Luis Russell (responsible for much of Louis Armstrong's musical backing from 1929 to 1933) to play for the dancers at New York's legendary Savoy Ballroom. When not traveling with Russell, the young drummer spent much time on Manhattan's 52nd Street and uptown in Minton's, the legendary incubator of bebop, soaking up the scene.

Haynes was Lester Young's drummer from 1947 to 1949, worked with Bud Powell and Miles Davis in '49, became Charlie Parker's drummer of choice from 1949 to 1953, toured the world with Sarah Vaughan from 1954 to 1959, did numerous extended gigs with Thelonious Monk in 1959-60, made eight recordings with Eric Dolphy in 1960-61, worked extensively with Stan Getz from 1961 to 1965, played and recorded with the John Coltrane Quartet from 1963 to 1965, has collaborated with Chick Corea since 1968, and with Pat Metheny during the '90s. Metheny was featured on Haynes' previous Dreyfus release Te Vou! (voted by NAIRD as Best Contemporary Jazz Record of 1996). He's been an active bandleader from the late '50s to the present, featuring artists in performance and on recordings like Phineas Newborn, Booker Ervin, Roland Kirk, George Adams, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, Ralph Moore and Donald Harrison. A perpetual top three drummer in the Downbeat Readers Poll Awards, he won the Best Drummer honors in 1996 (and many years since), and in that year received the prestigious French Chevalier des l'Ordres Artes et des Lettres.

"I structure pieces like riding a horse," he says. "You pull a rein here, you tighten it up here, you loosen it there. I'm still sitting in the driver's seat, so to speak. I let it loose, I let it go, I see where it's going and what it feels like. Sometimes I take it out, sometimes I'll be polite, nice and let it move and breathe — always in the pocket and with feeling. So the music is tight but loose."

“I am constantly practicing in my head. In fact, a teacher in school once sent me to the principal, because I was drumming with my hands on the desk in class. My father used to say I was just nervous. I'm always thinking rhythms, drums. When I was very young I used to practice a lot; not any special thing, but just practice playing. Now I'm like a doctor. When he's operating on you, he's practicing. When I go to my gigs, that's my practice. I may play something that I never heard before or maybe that you never heard before. It's all a challenge. I deal with sounds. I'm full of rhythm, man. I feel it. I think summer, winter, fall, spring, hot, cold, fast and slow — colors. But I don't analyze it. I've been playing professionally over 50 years, and that's the way I do it. I always surprise myself. The worst surprise is when I can't get it to happen. But it usually comes out. I don't play for a long period, and then I'm like an animal, a lion or tiger locked in its cage, and when I get out I try to restrain myself. I don't want to overplay. I like the guys to trade, and I just keep it moving, and spread the rhythm, as Coltrane said. Keep it moving, keep it crisp."

RIP Roy Haynes, plus Lucy Woodward and Alan Braufman

by Jerome Wilson
November 27, 2024

This program pays tribute to the late Roy Haynes with examples of his work with Oliver Nelson and Andrew Hill as well as his recordings as a bandleader. It also features Lucy Woodward, Howard Riley and Alan Braufman. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Oliver Nelson “Stolen Moments" from The Blues and the Abstract Truth ...

Radio & Podcasts

Lou Donaldson, Roy Haynes RIP + New Releases

by David Brown
November 23, 2024

This week, we are celebrating two legends of the music who both recently passed. The soulful, bluesy saxophonist Mr. Lou Donaldson left us on November 9th at the age of 98, and one of the most recorded drummers in jazz history, Mr. Roy Haynes who passed on November 12 at the age of 99. Both of these gentlemen's careers began in the post war bebop era and continued for decades. We'll start out with two sets of music in remembrance ...

Play This!

Remembering Roy Haynes: Modern Jazz Giant

by Ian Patterson
November 19, 2024

When Roy Haynes sat down at the tiny kit on the stage of the Everyman Theatre, during the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in 2005, he shook his head ruefully and said, “Man, I feel like a midget!" Rising above the audience laughter, somewhere in the depths of the theatre, a voice replied, “Roy, you're a giant!" And so he was. Roy Haynes might not have had such a big, powerful sound as Art Blakey or Elvin Jones but ...

Interview

Roy Haynes: Still Lighting It Up

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 15, 2024

This article was first published on All About Jazz in June 1997. Drummer Roy Haynes isn't just cool--he's cooooolllll. In conversation, Roy Haynes is languid and relaxed yet full of fire, yet playful, mysterious and serious. Similarly, his music--and he's played alongside the best--is simultaneously passionate and precise, free-swinging and loose, but erudite and eloquent. In short, the Roy Haynes you meet in conversation speaks volumes about his drumming; and Haynes' music, more than with many ...

Interview

Roy Haynes Revisited

by AAJ Staff
November 15, 2024

This article was first published on All About Jazz in January 1999. Roy Haynes is one of the few living legends remaining in jazz. He has been awarded the Danish Jazzpar prize, Grammys, and numerous other awards and polls. Haynes is the most versatile drummer in jazz history, do in most part to his playing with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Horace Tapscott, Miles Davis, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, ...

Album Review

Archie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic of Ju-ju Revisited

Read "The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic of Ju-ju Revisited" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
August 15, 2024

In questa compilation dedicata ad un periodo importante di Archie Shepp, si dovrebbe iniziare l'ascolto dalla fine. Infatti, i quasi venti minuti di “The Magic of Ju-Ju," posti in chiusura del CD, sono dell'aprile 1967; il resto del repertorio è invece stato inciso nel biennio successivo. Pur non riuscendo a comprendere il criterio con cui si assemblano questi cataloghi sonori, è indubbiamente utile comparare alcuni lavori vicini eppure assai differenti di un autore come Shepp, all'epoca sugli scudi ...

Album Review

Eric Dolphy: Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited

Read "Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
May 10, 2024

Il valore incalcolabile dell'opera di Eric Dolphy sta passando un po' in secondo piano nel nostro tempo di ascolti rapidi e deconcentrati. Ben venga allora questa edizione, anche se rimane la perplessità dell'accorpare due dischi che pochissimo hanno in comune e che sono comunque ancora a disposizione negli ottimi originali. Dal 1960 al 1964 (anno della scomparsa), Dolphy ha attraversato un mondo sonoro denso, sfaccettato, rimanendo se stesso sia accanto a Mingus che a Russell, sia nelle sabbie ...

Obituary

Roy Haynes: 1925-2024

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 19, 2024

Roy Haynes, whose power and sensitivity on the drums made him a first choice for leading jazz instrumentalists and singers and whose tasteful pokes, polyrhythms and grooves landed him on swing, bebop, cool, Third Stream, spiritual, free jazz and fusion recording sessions, died on November 12. He was 99. Born eight years after the first jazz 78 was recorded in 1917, Roy began his recording career in Luis Russell's band in New York in 1945. His first bebop recordings were ...
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