Black Music Sunday is a weekly collection highlighting all issues Black music, with over 235 tales masking performers, genres, historical past, and extra, every that includes its personal vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll discover some acquainted tunes and maybe an introduction to one thing new.
It’s at all times a tragic time when we have now to announce that considered one of our biggest musicians has joined the ancestors. This week it was jazz drummer extraordinaire Roy Haynes, who died on Nov. 12, 2024, on the age of 99.
But there’s pleasure in savoring the presents he bequeathed us for a number of many years. Born in 1925, and beginning out on the age of 17, he drummed for extra years than many people have lived on this planet. Whereas we provide condolences to his household, buddies, and all these whose lives he intersected, I’d wish to additionally merely say, “Thank you, Roy.”
FYI: Lest you assume I’m being disrespectful by referring to him as “Roy” on this tribute, not as “Haynes” or “Mr. Haynes,” it’s how I knew him after I was in my early 20s. I met him as a result of my greatest pal, Jean Drakes was his Bajan cousin, and Roy used to take us out to jazz golf equipment. He would additionally convey a bunch of us younguns who had been jazz followers to his home in Hollis, Queens, the neighborhood I lived in with my dad and mom. He handled us to listening classes of reel to reel tapes he had recorded of his early performances. I keep in mind being in awe listening to him jam with Billie Vacation.
I wish to additionally add right here, that Roy’s passing was preceded by the dying of alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson on Nov. 9, 2024, on the age of 98.
Tributes to Roy have rolled in—listed here are a few of them:
Music critic and jazz author Nate Chinen wrote for The New York Instances:
Mr. Haynes was an irrepressible pressure who proudly remained each related and classy over a profession spanning seven many years, having had a hand in each main growth in trendy jazz, starting within the bebop period. Remarkably, he did so with out important alterations to his type, which was characterised by a bracing readability — Snap Crackle was the nickname bestowed on him within the Fifties — together with locomotive vitality and a slippery however emphatic move.
Few musicians ever labored with so broad an array of jazz legends. Mr. Haynes recorded with the quintessential swing-era tenor saxophonist Lester Younger in addition to the modern guitarist Pat Metheny. He was briefly however prominently related to the singer Sarah Vaughan, and with a few of bebop’s chief pioneers, notably the alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and the pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.
Chinen additionally wrote a further piece for The Gig:
The primary time I witnessed his rhythmic flux firsthand, in 1997, Roy was taking part in Bud’s music with Chick at Philly’s Theater of the Residing Arts. (Additionally within the band: Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett and Christian McBride.) By then I’d made a detailed research of dozens extra Roy Haynes performances on file — some current stuff, some not-so-recent, and even farther again. A brand new archival album had simply dropped on Blue Word, titled One Night time Stand: The City Corridor Live performance 1947. I had it on heavy rotation, riveted by the authority a younger Roy exuded behind each Lester Younger and Sarah Vaughan. (Additionally on heavy rotation, then and now: recordings made at The 5 Spot in 1958 by Thelonious Monk, whose spatial geometry labored a sure means with Roy on drums.)
After I moved to New York and started masking jazz for the Instances, I had the chance to catch Haynes frequently. I reviewed membership dates and live shows, together with the Sonny Rollins eightieth birthday bash on the Beacon Theater (reward hyperlink), which famously gave us Rollins onstage with Ornette Coleman for the primary time, amongst different delights. I wrote about Roy’s slyly named Fountain of Youth Band on a number of events, and attended his eighty fifth birthday tribute at Jazz at Lincoln Middle.
My deepest immersion got here across the time of his closing studio album, Roy-alty, in 2011. On the time, I used to be a busy presence within the pages of JazzTimes, and my editor, Evan Haga, requested me to profile Haynes, then a spry 86, for the November concern, with its customary deal with drummers. (Coincidentally, the duvet story for that concern was a characteristic on Terri Lyne Carrington, whom I simply wrote about right here at The Gig.)
Hayes additionally launched acclaimed albums as a bandleader, comparable to 1962’s Out of the Afternoon (with Roland Kirk), and fashioned his personal band, the Hip Ensemble, within the late Nineteen Sixties. The acclaimed drummer lived as much as that band identify, based on fellow jazz artist Pat Metheny, who toured with Haynes within the late Nineteen Eighties: “Roy is the human manifestation of whatever it is that the word ‘hip’ was supposed to mean before it just became a word. Always in the moment, always in this time, eternal and classic and at the same time totally nonchalant about it.”
His profession endured past the retirement of lots of his contemporaries. His 2004 album Fountain of Youth and 2007’s Whereas earned him Grammy nominations, the latter when he was in his early 80s, and he obtained a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2012. In 2008, he introduced the jazz radio station on the online game Grand Theft Auto IV. Till the Covid-19 pandemic, Haynes celebrated his birthday with an annual efficiency at New York’s Blue Word Jazz Membership – most lately on the age of 94. In an interview with Percussive Arts Society, he as soon as stated: “Maybe the secret of staying youthful is playing the drums. I know that performing makes me feel good, and it also makes me sleep well.”
Thomas Staudter detailed his beginnings for Downbeat:
Born and raised within the Roxbury part of Boston, Haynes grew up in a musical household. His dad and mom, each from Barbados, had been huge music followers, and his father performed the organ at dwelling and sang in church. One in all 4 brothers, Haynes realized a terrific deal from his oldest brother, Douglas, who was a musician and graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, later to work with Cab Calloway’s sister, Blanche, and her group the Pleasure Boys.
In his teenagers, Haynes began taking part in drums, and whereas in highschool, he was gigging often with touring teams visiting Boston that wanted somebody within the drum chair. Many famed jazz musicians got here from the Boston space, and it was only a matter of time earlier than considered one of them really useful Haynes for the massive leagues. In his case, alto saxophonist Charlie Holmes (previously the principal oboist with the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra) was taking part in with bandleader Luis Russell, and when a drummer was wanted, Haynes bought the decision. He moved to New York Metropolis in 1945 on the age of 20. Russell’s ensemble was famend throughout the nation, having backed Louis Armstrong for a spell, and the expertise of taking part in in a giant band helped form Haynes’s type of having the ability to match his taking part in to any tempo and timbre calls for.
After working with Lester Younger for 2 years, Haynes occupied the drum chair with the Charlie Parker Quintet from 1949 to 1952, after which loved stretches with trombonist Kai Winding, tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray and Miles Davis throughout the trumpeter’s first years as a solo artist. There was a five-year stretch with Sarah Vaughan, a recording with Thelonious Monk, and within the Nineteen Sixties, he performed with John Coltrane Quartet because the personnel was nonetheless gelling; later, when common drummer Elvin Jones wanted a sub, Haynes was there.
“When you’re playing behind other people, it’s important to have a feeling of what the artist leading the gig likes,” stated Haynes. “Much of that comes from being a careful listener. Sometimes you have to pick up that feeling right away on the job, then quickly translate it into the pulse, swing and sense of rhythm necessary to keep the music moving along.”
The Nationwide Endowment for the Arts issued a press release:
It’s with nice disappointment that the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts acknowledges the passing of drummer Roy Haynes, recipient of a 1995 NEA Jazz Grasp fellowship. Haynes performed the drums from the bebop days of the Nineteen Forties via the subsequent seven many years of his profession with the identical stressed vitality.
“I don’t analyze things. I don’t try to,” he stated in a 2014 interview with the NEA. “A lot of the things that happen I just keep on keeping on and don’t try to figure them out. That’s what I do on the bandstand, too, a lot of times…. Even if I have somebody new in my band, I don’t sit down and tell them what I expect them to do, what I would like them to do…. We don’t talk about it much, and it works.”
He remained recent in his outlook and in his thirst for collaborating with youthful artists and those that play in difficult types, as is proven in his work with such disparate artists as Roland Kirk, Danilo Pérez, and Pat Metheny. He was additionally a favourite sideman for a variety of artists due to his crisply distinctive drumming type. Thelonious Monk as soon as described Haynes’ drumming as “an eight ball right in the side pocket.”
Give a hearken to Roy telling the story of how he bought began and his first gig with a giant band:
Jazz Video Man posted an extended 30-minute portion of the interview with Roy.
These video notes present a partial transcript:
Roy Haynes remembers assembly Sonny Rollins, talks with Sonny about their first session, performs with Stan Getz and Gary Burton, and with Chick Corea and Miroslav Vitous. Additionally, an prolonged dialog with Nasar Abadey from the 2012 MidAtlantic Jazz Pageant.There was a long-standing misperception about Roy Haynes – one which the influential jazz drummer needs cleared up as soon as and for all. “Everything you read about me says I was born in 1926, but that’s wrong. I was born in 1925, so I’m 73 now, not 72,” Haynes says, proudly. “When you’re younger, you want to stay young, but now that I’m older, I just want to be myself.”
Haynes has actually been his personal man by way of his drumming. With stable roots within the swing type, his early gigs established him as a grasp of bebop taking part in, and as his profession progressed, Haynes was capable of adapt his taking part in to a wide range of types together with avant-garde jazz and fusion, with out ever shedding his personal identification. “My biggest influence was Jonathan – “Papa Jo” [Jones],” he says. “I also listened to Chick Webb a lot when I was a teenager, but I never got to hear him live; I just had the records. And then there were people like Shadow Wilson and Kenny Clarke, and of course Max [Roach] and Art [Blakey]. I tried to listen to everybody. I didn’t try to do what everyone else had done, but I listened. My ears were always open.”
Haynes personal type was characterised by crispness and finesse, in addition to an incredible sense of drive. His drumming at all times sounded trendy and really, very hip. Jack DeJohnette is considered one of many who credit Haynes as paving the way in which for the drumming of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams.“A lot of people describe my drumming as ‘snap, crackle’,” Haynes says. “I believe George Shearing and Al McKibbon had been the primary to make use of that time period in reference to my taking part in, and I can perceive that. I by no means analyzed it, although. That was only a sound that I favored and felt snug with. I did just a little little bit of drum and bugle corps drumming at school, however I used to be by no means actually a rudimental drummer, so I believe my sound comes from my thoughts greater than my fingers.
“Every time I read something about myself it usually says ‘bebop.’ I recently had a review in The Village Voice about my week-long gig at the Village Vanguard, and they called me ‘hard bop.’ I would have liked it more if they had said ‘hard swing.’ I’m not always comfortable with those labels that people use. I’m just an old-time drummer who tries to play with feeling.”
Jeff Stockton, at All That Jazz, evaluations the CD/video set that it is best to get your fingers on (check out the tracklist):
That is the form of expansive assortment that in years previous might have solely been issued by the Smithsonian. This isn’t to say that this three-CD (plus one DVD) boxed set is a relic. It merely paperwork the legendary profession of the drummer whose recorded output commenced in 1949 and continues to today, a musical life that, by advantage of lots of expertise and just a little success, started with the Lester Younger band and by no means paused to look again.
Charlie Parker. Bud Powell. Miles Davis. Sonny Rollins. Thelonious Monk. Eric Dolphy. Stan Getz. John Coltrane. Haynes performed with all of them and all are represented on this compilation drawn from the catalogues of Savoy, Status, Blue Word, Verve, Impulse and extra, recounting an exhilarating and spectacular historical past of jazz.
[…]
Via all of it, Haynes has remained a driving pressure, rising into the function of elder statesman and incomes his nickname “Snap Crackle” with distinctively shimmering cymbal work, a crisp snare and important inventiveness throughout his drum package. It is laborious to think about a extra helpful, unifying and thrilling primer for an individual simply getting interested by jazz music, particularly with aspirations towards being a drummer.
Steve Futterman additionally evaluations it for JazzTimes:
A Life in Time, three discs of music plus an accompanying DVD chronicling the practically 60-year profession of drummer Roy Haynes, units a parlor sport in movement: Identify a significant determine from the bebop and subsequent postbop period that Haynes hasn’t recorded with.
Even a partial itemizing of leaders represented on this set staggers. From the ’40s, Lester Younger and Bud Powell; the ’50s, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and Sarah Vaughan; the ’60s, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill and Chick Corea. Later many years discover Haynes with Alice Coltrane, Gary Burton and Michel Petrucciani. (One other few discs bearing on Haynes’ work with Artwork Farmer, Wardell Grey, Artwork Pepper and Pat Metheny, to say just some of the grasp gamers lacking right here, might simply kind one other quantity of this well-deserved tribute.) And because the closing tracks on disc three forcefully assert, the octogenarian Haynes continues to be a monster of a percussionist, a pressure of nature seemingly untouched by the ravages of time.
Then-host of “The Late Show” David Letterman had Roy on his present as a visitor in 2011:
Drummerworld posted this prolonged solo from 1966:
And right here’s one from 2010:
Right here’s an hourlong video of Roy’s Quartet dwell in Germany in 2005:
Be part of me within the feedback part under for extra, and stay up for listening to the music you put up as nicely.
Thanks Roy.
