Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
‘Roy has always had the hippest phrasing, the best feel, the magic component of heart and soul,’ said the guitarist Pat Metheny
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
Roy Haynes, who has died aged 99, was one of jazz’s greatest drummers, a maestro of bebop with the crisp, rapid snare and cymbal patterns that earned him the nickname of “Snap Crackle”; he played with a panoply of leading lights, including Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Sarah Vaughan, while John Coltrane spoke admiringly of his ability to “spread the rhythm” beyond simple four-beat measures.
“I played with Louis Armstrong in the ’40s,” Haynes said in 1994, “and with [guitarist] Pat Metheny in the ’90s, which should tell you something about where I am, musically.” For his part, Metheny said: “I always refer to Roy as the father of modern drumming. Roy has always had the hippest phrasing, the best feel, the magic component of heart and soul.”
Roy Owen Haynes was born in Roxbury, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, on March 13 1925 to music-loving Bajan parents; his father worked for Standard Oil and played the organ in church; his mother was devoutly religious and would later refuse to attend his night-club spots.
He had a brother in a high school drum and bugle band, which piqued young Roy’s interest: “I picked up his sticks, and boom – I started banging on everything.” On one occasion he was sent to the principal’s office for continually drumming on his desk. He bought one piece of equipment at a time – snare, bass drum, cymbals – and by the age of 16 he was playing professionally.
Four years later he moved to New York to join Luis Russell’s big band, then in 1947 he joined the influential tenor saxophonist Lester Young, and two years later featured on the seminal album The Amazing Bud Powell alongside the eponymous pianist and bebop pioneer.
That year, he also became Charlie Parker’s go-to drummer, replacing the great Max Roach. “The drums just seemed to play themselves because the man was so great,” he said in 2002. “I was just there, it was automatic… you’re just sitting there decorating what he’s playing.”
He went on to tour with Sarah Vaughan for five years in the 1950s while assembling his own outfits at the same time; he continued as a sideman with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday – he was behind the skins for her final club set – the pianist Thelonious Monk and the saxophonists Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Stan Getz. He also underpinned the propulsive rhythms of saxophonist Oliver Nelson’s groundbreaking 1961 album The Blues and the Abstract Truth.
Always stylish, in 1960 he featured on an Esquire list of best-dressed men, alongside the likes of Clark Gable, Fred Astaire and Cary Grant.
Haynes stood out for his adaptability and willingness to explore new avenues, taking in his stride both the experimentalism of the 1960s and the wave of jazz fusion that swept the following decade (the latter often with his band Hip Ensemble).
In all Haynes played on more than 600 albums and he was named top drummer in Downbeat magazine a dozen times. He won two Grammys, one for the Blues for Coltrane tribute album (1989), the other for his 1998 album Like Minds, recorded with a supergroup line-up of Gary Burton on vibes, Chick Corea on piano, Metheny on guitar and Dave Holland on double bass.
He continued touring and recording into his ninth decade, often working with a revolving group of mostly younger musicians called the Fountain of Youth. “When we get on the bandstand,” he said in 2007, “we all become one age – the same age.” But he also made sure he had time to attend to his hobby, entering sports cars in shows.
Roy Haynes’s wife Jesse Lee died in 1979 and he is survived by their daughter Leslie and their son Graham Haynes, a cornet player known for his work in hip-hop and electronica. Another son, Craig Haynes, and a grandson, Marcus Gilmore, are both successful drummers.
Roy Haynes, born March 13 1925, died November 12 2024
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
English