Roy Haynes

Biography and cause of death of Roy Haynes

Roy Owen Haynes (March 13, 1925 – November 12, 2024) was an American jazz drummer. In the 1950s he was given the nickname “Snap Crackle” for his distinctive snare drum sound and musical vocabulary. He was among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career spanning over eight decades, he played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, and avant-garde jazz. He is considered to have been a pioneer of jazz drumming.

Haynes led bands, including the Hip Ensemble. His albums Fountain of Youth and Whereas were nominated for a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1999.

Roy Haynes Career

Haynes performing in 1964
Haynes was born in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, to Gustavas and Edna Haynes, immigrants from Barbados. His younger brother, Michael E. Haynes, became an important leader in the African American community in Massachusetts, working with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, representing Roxbury in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and for forty years serving as pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church. King had been a member at the church while he pursued his doctoral degree at Boston University.

Haynes made his professional debut in 1942 in Boston and began his full-time professional career in 1945. From 1947 to 1949 he worked with saxophonist Lester Young, and from 1949 to 1952 was a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker’s quintet. He also recorded at the time with pianist Bud Powell and saxophonists Wardell Gray and Stan Getz. From 1953 to 1958, he toured with singer Sarah Vaughan and recorded with her.

In the 1950s he was given the nickname “Snap Crackle”. In the 1960s, he was a member of the John Coltrane Quartet, often working as a sub for drummer Elvin Jones. In 1990, he co-led the album Question and Answer with Pat Metheny. Haynes led bands including the Hip Ensemble.

A tribute song was recorded by Jim Keltner and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, and he appeared on stage with the Allman Brothers Band in 2006 and Page McConnell of Phish in 2008. “Age seems to have just passed him by,” Watts observed. “He’s eighty-three and in 2006 he was voted Best Contemporary Jazz Drummer. He’s amazing.”

Haynes, George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55, Newport, Rhode Island, August 2009
In 2008, Haynes voiced a DJ for the fictional classic jazz radio station, Jazz Nation Radio 108.5 on the open-world video game Grand Theft Auto IV.[16] His last album, Roy-Alty, was released in 2011.

Roy Haynes Personal life

His son Graham Haynes is a cornetist; another son Craig Holiday Haynes and grandson Marcus Gilmore are both drummers.

Haynes was known to celebrate his birthdays on stage and in later years at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. His 95th birthday celebration in 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 12, 2024, following a short illness, Haynes died at the age of 99 in Nassau County, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island.

Roy Haynes Awards and honors

A Life in Time – The Roy Haynes Story was named by The New Yorker magazine as one of the Best Boxed Sets of 2007 and was nominated for an award by the Jazz Journalist’s Association. WKCR-FM, New York, surveyed Haynes’s career in 301 hours of programming, January 11–23, 2009. Esquire named Roy Haynes one of the best-dressed men in America in 1960, along with Fred Astaire, Miles Davis, Clark Gable, and Cary Grant.

Roy Haynes Selected discography

Main article: Roy Haynes discography
Busman’s Holiday (EmArcy, 1955)
Jazz Abroad (Mercury, 1956) – recorded in 1953. split album with Quincy Jones.
We Three with Paul Chambers & Phineas Newborn (New Jazz, 1959) – recorded in 1958

Just Us (New Jazz, 1960)
Out of the Afternoon (Impulse!, 1962)
Cracklin’ with Booker Ervin (New Jazz, 1963)
Cymbalism (New Jazz, 1963).
Hip Ensemble (Mainstream, 1971)
Senyah (Mainstream, 1972)
Thank You Thank You (Galaxy, 1977)
Vistalite (Galaxy, 1979) – recorded in 1977
Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker (Dreyfus Jazz, 2001) – Grammy-nominated album
Whereas (Dreyfus Jazz, 2006)

Roy Haynes Compilations

Fountain of Youth (Dreyfus Jazz, 2004) – Grammy-nominated album

Source: Wikipedia