Roy Haynes

This is undoubtedly one of the best straightahead jazz records of the 1990s. It is a crowning achievement for drum legend Roy Haynes, who emerged as a bandleader relatively late in his career. Together with tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist David Kikoski, and bassist Ed Howard, Haynes explores time-honored standards as well as bop and post-bop classics. ~ AllMusic

This splendid-sounding CD reissues a 1962 set from the Roy Haynes Quartet – which, at the time, consisted of Haynes, Henry Grimes on bass, Tommy Flanagan on piano, and Roland Kirk on saxes, manzello, stritch, and flutes. The album is a delightful mix of techniques in arrangement and performance, with all of the musicians delivering terrific work ~ AllMusic

Roy Haynes, Phineas Newborn, Paul Chambers - We Three (1958) {2007 Prestige RVG Remasters Series}
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© 2007 Concord / Prestige New Jazz | 0888072301627 | Prestige RVG Remasters Series | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Hard Bop

This was not a working trio, except for a series of Mondays at the Five Spot Café in the fall of 1958, but it is a unit that is made up of three powerful parts whose sum is even greater than its whole. What they do with two Ray Bryant orginals, Avery Parrish’s classic blues, "After Hours,” Tadd Dameron’s "Our Delight,” and Phineas Newborn’s "Sugar Ray,” is memorable music from an all-star trio that would never get together again.

Roy Haynes - Homecoming (1994) {Evidence ECD 22092-2 rec 1992}
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© 1994 Evidence Music | ECD 22092-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Drums

This live set was recorded for radio in 1992, just a month before Roy Haynes's group would enter the studio and create the wonderful When It's Haynes, It Roars! The drum legend and his young quartet wind their way through six tunes, most of which would remain staples of their repertoire for years. Everyone plays brilliantly on every track, but some of the excitement of the show might have gotten lost in translation to tape.

Roy Haynes - Hip Ensemble (1971) {Boplicity Records CDBOPM028 rel 2014}
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© 1971, 2014 Mainstream / Boplicity Records | CDBOPM 028
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Spiritual Jazz / Post Bop / Drums

Returning to the leader's chair after a seven-year absence, drummer Roy Haynes signed with Boplicity and released Hip Ensemble in 1971. Named after the group Haynes led at the time – a group that featured George Adams on saxophone and flute, Marvin Peterson on trumpet, Mervin Bronson on bass, and Carl Schroeder on keys – the title Hip Ensemble somewhat gives away the game: this is now music, perched halfway between the out futurism that was Haynes' specialty while playing with Archie Shepp, Jackie McLean, Chick Corea, and Jack DeJohnette and the fusion that was creeping into the most adventurous aspects of '70s jazz.

We Three, recorded in a single session on November 14, 1958, was the first American studio date as a bandleader for the diminutive and legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, although with pianist Phineas Newborn on board (along with bassist Paul Chambers), it really is a set dominated by Newborn, whose busy, two-handed technique here works in tandem balance with Haynes' cool refinement. Newborn was all about amazing and dazzling piano runs that on some dates created simply too much flash and clutter to allow pieces to flow and breathe properly, but Haynes has always been about grace and flow throughout his career (if a drummer's style can said to be elegant, Haynes fits the bill), and here he rubs off on Newborn, who exercises just enough restraint to keep him in the proper orbit, resulting in a fine album…

Out of the Afternoon is a splendid sounding 1962 set from the Roy Haynes Quartet - which, at the time, consisted of Haynes, Henry Grimes on bass, Tommy Flanagan on piano, and Roland Kirk on saxes, manzello, stritch, and flutes. The album is a delightful mix of techniques in arrangement and performance, with all of the musicians delivering terrific work. Haynes' drumming is absolutely wonderful here, lightly dancing around the other instruments; Flanagan's piano playing is equally light and delicate; Grimes' bass work is outstanding (during "Raoul" you have a chance to hear one of the few bowed bass solos on records of that era); and there's no more to be said about Kirk's sax and flute work that hasn't been said a hundred times, apart from the fact that the flute solos on "Snap Crackle" help this cut emerge as particularly outstanding.