{"id":805209,"date":"2020-03-13T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=965383"},"modified":"2020-03-13T07:00:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T13:00:21","slug":"flashback-roy-haynes-journeys-from-free-jazz-to-bebop-at-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/flashback-roy-haynes-journeys-from-free-jazz-to-bebop-at-the-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Roy Haynes Journeys From Free Jazz to Bebop at the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By 1982, Roy Haynes had been playing drums professionally for close to 40 years. That December, during a concert at the White House<\/a> with pianist Chick Corea<\/a> and bassist Miroslav Vitous, he showed that he was still operating on the cutting edge of jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of playing it safe and running through a couple familiar tunes, the group presented an unusual medley, based on a concept documented on its then-recent ECM album Trio Music.<\/em> That LP featured a novel structure: half searching free improvisations, half swinging renditions of pieces by Thelonious Monk. At the White House<\/a>, the band offered one totally spontaneous piece, which flowed seamlessly into the jazz standard \u201cAutumn Leaves\u201d and from there into Monk\u2019s uptempo romp \u201cRhythm-a-Ning\u201d (a number that Haynes had played live<\/a> with its composer back in 1958). Throughout the performance, whether Haynes is punctuating the free piece with ear-catching clicks on the rim of the snare, playing dazzling one-handed fills on \u201cAutumn Leaves,\u201d or laying down a relentless high-speed ride-cymbal rhythm on the Monk, he sounds completely in command. In just under 10 minutes, the performance shows how the drummer \u2014 who turns 95 today \u2014 has remained perennially modern during his astonishing 75-year musical journey.<\/p>\n

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In the early decades of Haynes\u2019 career, he played with the undisputed masters of various jazz eras and styles: swing-era saxophone giant Lester Young<\/a> in the Forties, bebop innovator Charlie Parker<\/a> and vocal legend Sarah Vaughan<\/a> in the Fifties, and avant-garde trailblazer John Coltrane<\/a> in the Sixties. He would later connect every bit as deeply with younger musicians who came of age in the Sixties and Seventies, from Corea \u2014 who, after teaming up with the drummer for 1968\u2019s classic Now He Sings, Now He Sobs<\/a>,<\/em> worked with him consistently<\/a> into the 21st century \u2014 to guitarist Pat Metheny<\/a>, Haynes\u2019 frequent collaborator since the Eighties, and Panamanian pianist Danilo P\u00e9rez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on Haynes during a 2001 interview with Jazziz<\/em><\/a>, Metheny called the drummer his \u201cnumber one hero on earth.\u201d He continued, \u201cRoy is the human manifestation of whatever it is that the word \u2018hip\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, Haynes has barely slowed down. He\u2019s gigged consistently with his own bands, including the long-running Fountain of Youth \u2014 which even turned up on Letterman<\/em><\/a> in 2011 \u2014 and made time to connect with admirers like Stephen Colbert<\/em> bandleader Jon Batiste<\/a>. And just like he does every year, he\u2019ll be celebrating his birthday by taking the stage: From March 19th through the 22nd, he\u2019ll be at New York\u2019s Blue Note, his home away from home, no doubt sounding as modern as ever. (Note: As of press time, Haynes\u2019 shows were still proceeding as planned.)<\/p>\n

In a 2006 interview for <\/a>Jazziz,<\/em> recalling a performance at Montreal\u2019s Drumfest with many fellow drummers in attendance, Haynes spoke about his determination to always remain one step ahead. \u201cNow, if I played rudiments and all that shit, they\u2019re hip to that shit,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I come up with the Roy Haynes shit, man, and it blew all of their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By 1982, Roy Haynes had been playing drums professionally for close to 40 years. That December, during a concert at the White House with pianist Chick Corea and bassist Miroslav Vitous, he showed that he was still operating on the cutting edge of jazz. Instead of playing it safe and running through a couple familiar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 08:03:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}