Roy Haynes
Released in February 2004
Grammy Nominee Best Jazz Instrumental Album 2005
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n3OTLdRWYjm_0_8LHgQ63vzhTzV70VKlA
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0hLzbuvpCltJWE1CwzhOtS?si=q-eNPYXPQ0aDRcqmCJO4NA
About:
Thelonious Monk once described Roy Haynes’ drumming as “an eight ball right in the side pocket.” Jack DeJohnette calls Roy’s percolations “a rare combination of street education, high sophistication and soul.” Pat Metheny says Haynes is the “father of modern drumming” and “a national treasure.” Lester Young summed up Haynes’ genius best perhaps when the two shared a bandstand in October, 1947, exclaiming, “Haynes, you sure are swinging!”
For over 50 years Roy Haynes has influenced and innovated, shaping some of the greatest recordings in jazz while altering the very fabric and direction of jazz improvisation with his mercurial, intelligent, joyous drumming. Freeing jazz’s borders, infusing its lifeblood, steering it towards greater freedom and more distinctive expression, Roy Haynes is a national treasure who continues to forge new paths well into his ’70s, dumbfounding jazz lovers, not to mention Father Time and Mother Nature. Who else can claim residencies with Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Lennie Tristano, Stan Getz, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny?
“It is weird isn’t it?” Haynes muses. “It is amazing for me, turning 79 as I am. I couldn’t see this far in advance that I would be still playing at my age. I’m constantly getting calls for record dates, I don’t know what the hell it is. I like to do my own thing where I can play anything I want to play, interpreting it my own way. Years ago, when I was playing with other people, my job was to make them feel good. When I stopped doing that it seemed like I got more attention – my own concept came out.”
Calling his music “hard swing,” Haynes has recently led a series of groups such as appeared on 2001’s BIRDS OF A FEATHER (Dave Holland, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett) and 2003’s Love Letters (Holland, Kenny Barron, Scofield, Joshua Redman). Add to that short list of explosive, inspired outings this live recording from New York’s Birdland titled FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH which bows on Dreyfus Jazz February 24. With his 20-something band of Martin Bejerano (piano), Marcus Strickland (tenor and soprano saxophone and bass clarinet), and John Sullivan (bass), Roy Haynes is influencing the next generation just as he has those of the past. “I like Marcus, I like the way he listens. We have a good rapport. He can play with me without always having it explained, he just gets it. They are still growing and I am too, even though I say I’m 100 years old. There is an affinity that happens between us that you can’t find with just anybody.”
Fountain of Youth opens with “Greensleeves.” An homage to Coltrane perhaps, but the group strikes it anew with an emotive, clamoring energy. The album includes a triptych of Monk standards, “Twinkle Trinkle,” “Ask Me Now,” and “Green Chimneys,” the songs’ zigzagging logic providing some eruptive and forceful improvisations.
“The way I do the Monk songs is definitely different,” Haynes says. “We cut out certain bars in ‘Twinkle Trinkle,’ for instance, and add a lot of different accents. I don’t like to give all the details. We rearrange the music, almost treat them as if they were my tunes. ‘Green Chimneys’ as well.”
“I played on the original Question and Answer album with Metheny and Dave Holland back in ’89,” Roy recalls. “I like that melody; it really knocks me out. I like a lot of Pat’s writing.”
Roy Haynes’ perennial focus on the music has not only led to a cherished spot among jazz fans and musicians, but to a mantel full of much deserved awards. Along with honorary doctorates from Berklee and the New England Conservatory, Haynes picked up the JAZZPAR prize in ’94, the French Chevalier des l’Ordes Artes et des Letters in ’96, Zildjian’s American Drummer’s Achievement Award in ’98, and the PAS Hall of Fame Award. And as in years past, Haynes recently topped the 2003 Downbeat Critic’s Poll and Reader’s Poll. But for a musician whose gifts have only slowly become recognized as innovations and continual inspiration, Roy Haynes remains an almost shy man concerned more with his music than reaping accolades.
“Chan [Parker] used to tell me that I was Bird’s favorite drummer. He would never tell me what he liked about my playing but years later I figured it out — I had that swing thing. I had that thing on the cymbal, that swing we called it in the old days, it wasn’t just a word, it had a meaning back when Bebop was new. My way of doing it was right in the pocket. That is what kept me out there.”
With FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, Roy Haynes is still right in the pocket, leading the charge.
Track Listing:
1. Greensleeves (Traditional) 8:20
2. Twinkle Trinkle (Thelonious Monk) 5:55
3. Summer Night (Al Dubin / Harry Warren) 7:55
4. Ask Me Now (Thelonious Monk) 8:55
5. Butch and Butch (Oliver Nelson) 4:50
6. Inner Trust (Dave Kikoski) 10:53
7. Green Chimneys (Thelonious Monk) 8:08
8. Remember (Irving Berlin) 6:12
9. Question & Answer (Pat Metheny) 10:16
Personnel:
Roy Haynes: drums
Martin Bejerano: piano
Marcus Strickland: tenor and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet
John Sullivan: bass
Recorded December 4 – 5, 2002, at Birdland, New York, NY
Produced by Roy Haynes and Doug Yoel
Recorded by David Ruffo
Mastered by Alan Silverman
Photography by Jimmy Katz
Design: Christopher Kornmann
Review:
As he nears his 80th year, Roy Haynes is more than an astonishing fountain of youth; he is one of the true wonders of the jazz world. The master drummer, whose experience includes tenures with Lester Young, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, among many others, was unfortunately under-recorded for much of his career, but that sad state of affairs has been recently remedied with a series of excellent recordings for the French Dreyfus Jazz label, this latest one being perhaps the best, most representative documentation of his increasingly important role as a leader.
Recorded live at New York’s Birdland in December of 2002, Fountain of Youth features Haynes with his young working quartet of saxophonist Marcus Strickland, pianist Martin Be Jerano and bassist John Sullivan and is as rewarding for the mature, developed playing demonstrated by the sidemen, belying their youth, as it is amazing for the energy and exuberance displayed by the drummer at this stage of his life.
Strickland is stunning, starting things off with a striking bass clarinet introduction to an attractive new arrangement of “Greensleeves” before switching to soprano saxophone, the horn on which he is increasingly receiving deserved recognition as the premiere player of his generation—the combined result of his exceptional technical facility and a beautiful sound that is often more reminiscent of the exotic lyricism of Yusef Lateef than of his more frequently cited models, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. He is similarly smooth on his other straight horn features, three staples of the Haynes playbook: the seductive “Summer Night,” pianist Dave Kikoski’s dramatic “Inner Trust,” and Pat Metheny’s moving “Question and Answer.” Fountain of Youth features the saxophonist’s tenor on the disc’s other five selections, Irving Berlin’s “Remember” and four well known compositions from the jazz repertory: Oliver Nelson’s “Butch and Butch” (from the classic The Blues and The Abstract Truth, on which the drummer was featured) and three by Thelonious Monk—two rhythmic burners, “Trinkle Tinkle” and “Green Chimneys,” and the date’s one ballad, the beautiful “Ask Me Now.” Haynes’ drumming is joyous throughout and offers each selection a unique perspective, filled with emotional interjections from a performer who’s seen it all and knows how to show it.
Russ Musto (All About Jazz)