Roy Haynes

About Roy Haynes

Roy Haynes was one of the most important drummers in the evolution of jazz as an artform, jumping onto the scene full force in the mid-40's and pushing consistently forward from there. Haynes' crisp, conversational playing style made his rhythms cohere with whoever he joined forces with, often giving the group interplay a personality of its own. He played a major role in multiple important jazz chapters as the years went on, backing everyone from Charlie Parker and Lester Young in the bebop years to vocalist Sarah Vaughan before doing dates with John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders as jazz began venturing further out in the '60s, and later playing with Pat Metheny in the post-fusion days of the '90s. There were few important jazz figures Haynes didn't play with, and on top of this, he produced several notable albums as a leader, such as 1958's We Three and the 1962 Impulse! set Out of the Afternoon. Haynes remained active into the 2010s, releasing new music like 2011's Roy-Alty while well into his '80s. Haynes died in 2024, leaving behind an indelible mark on the history of jazz. Haynes was born in Boston in 1925, to parents who had moved there from Barbados. He began playing drums early in life, and by his teenage years he was gigging regularly by the mid-'40s. One of his first higher profile jobs was playing with Lester Young in the late '40s, after which he would take over drumming duties in Charlie Parker's quintet when Max Roach left the ensemble in 1949. Haynes played with Parker into the early '50s, establishing himself as a star drummer and doing live dates and recording sessions with many jazz greats of the time. Throughout the decade, he worked in some capacity with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Cal Tjader, and many others, while doing extensive turing and recording with vocalist Sarah Vaughan as well as boundary-pusher Thelonious Monk. As the '60s brought post-bop experimentation, Haynes was actively involved, playing with Coltrane, Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy, Chic Corea, and many others. Haynes had also begun producing records as a leader by this point, such as the 1959 trio album We Three with Paul Chambers and Phineas Newborn, 1962's powerhouse effort Out of the Afternoon with Roland Kirk, Tommy Flanagan, and Henry Grimes, 1963's Cymbalism, and 1964's People. He continued his nonstop activity into the next several decades, with solo albums and ceaseless dates with pretty much every innovative figure in jazz. His work remained steady through the '90s, 2000s, and into the start of the 2010s, with collaborations along the way that dipped into fusion on Pat Metheny's 1990 set Question and Answer and a Grammy-nominated album of his own with 2001's Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker. Haynes led several albums in this time, such as 2006 set Whereas, and 2011's Roy-Alty. At this point the drummer was in his 80s and had been actively contributing to the shaping of jazz for seven decades. Haynes died on November 12, 2024 at age 99.