Tribute to drummer Roy Haynes

Born on March 13, 1925 in Boston and died in New York State four months shy of celebrating 100 years of life, the self-taught Roy Haynes was one of the most influential drummers in the evolution of jazz. Seeing him bang on everything and everywhere in the house from the age of 8 or 9, his father, a church organist, made him take his first drum lessons. Beginning his career at the time in 1942, he crossed all styles, from New Orleans to acid-jazz through swing, bebop, free jazz, fusion and jazz rock. Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, Roy Hargrove, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Alice Coltrane, Gary Burton, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Michel Petrucciani … who was not carried by the modern, precise, aerial and inimitable playing of the master!

His first concerts took place in Boston with Sabby Lewis, Frankie Newton and Pete Brown. In 1945, he arrived in New York to join Luis Russell’s orchestra and then that of Lester Young, who often played with Billie Holiday.

In 1953 he recorded Jazz Abroad with Quincy Jones who has also just left us. From 1950, Roy Haynes looked towards the avant-garde and joined the groups of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker (replacing Max Roach) with whom he stayed for three years, then Sarah Vaughan with whom he recorded three albums. At the beginning of the 1960s he replaced Elvin Jones in John Coltrane’s quartet:

From 1965 to 1967, he played with Stan Getz alongside Gary Burton. Larry Coryell and Steve Swallow. Roy Haynes also leads his own bands. We particularly remember the album Out of The Afternoon (1962), from Hip Ensemble (1971), Fountain Of Youthcrowned with success upon its release in 2004 or Roy-Alty (2011) on which he invites Chick Corea.

After being the accomplice of Chick Corea in the 1970s and of Pat Metheny during the 1980s, Roy Haines is hailed at the New York History Museum as a living treasure of American jazz. In 1991, he was awarded a doctorate at Berklee College of Music, and in 1993 he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh. In 1994, he received the Jazzpar price (prestigious Danish prize), and, in 1996, he was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

In November 1998, he played on Gary Burton’s album, Like Minds with Chick Corea, Pat Metheny and Dave Holland. He published a final tribute to Charlie Bird Parker in 2001 with Birds Of A Feather : A Tribute to Charlie Parker :

Drummer Roy Haynes single-handedly embodies tradition and modernity, without ever falling into individualism. Having been involved in all major developments in jazz, his influence on several generations of drummers is considerable. “I’m only happy when I move forward“, he confided to the writer Burt Korall.