Roy Haynes career spanned seven decades. He was part of every major development in modern jazz, from bebop on, without significantly altering his style.

His clear, locomotive drumming earned him the moniker, Snap Crackle, in the 1950s.

Haynes drummed for a broad an array of jazz legends from Lester Young to Pat Metheny. He was briefly but prominently associated with the singer Sarah Vaughan, and with some of bebop’s chief pioneers, notably the alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and the pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.

As a band leader, Haynes made the highly regarded albums, “We Three,” a 1958 trio session with the pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. and the bassist Paul Chambers, and “Out of the Afternoon,” a 1962 date with Roland Kirk on reeds, Tommy Flanagan on piano and Henry Grimes on bass.

In the 1970s he led a series of  bands including the Hip Ensemble, playing the funkier side of fusion..

In 2000, he released “The Roy Haynes Trio” with pianist Danilo Pérez and bassist John Patitucci.

Around 2010 he formed the Fountain of Youth band with players in their 20s and 30s. That’s the group on his last album, “Roy-Alty” in 2011.

STYLE

“Roy Haynes was one of the first jazz drummers to make expressive use of his left foot on the hi-hat pedal, breaking away from a metronomic stomp on beats two and four. He brought a similar freedom of purpose to his snare and bass drum, with punchy accents that suggested a continuing conversation set against the pulse of his ride cymbal,” according to the New York Obituary, which continues…

“His flexible articulation of tempo, and his departure from the rigid framework of four- and eight-bar phrases, set a precedent adopted by countless others — from Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette, both born in the 1940s, to the generation that includes his grandson Marcus Gilmore, born in 1986.”

Roy Haynes loved beautiful clothes. In 1960, he was named one of the best-dressed men in America by Esquire magazine, on a list that also included Fred Astaire, Cary Grant and Miles Davis.

In 1953, Roy Haynes started a five-year stint as drummer for Sarah Vaughan in 1953.

He played with a Thelonius Monk quartet at the Five Spot Café in Manhattan, which produced a couple of live albums.

During the 1960s, he played an integral role in the development of experimental post-bop.

He played on Chick Corea’s “Now He Sings,” one of the defining modern piano trio albums; the alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s “Destination … Out!” (1964) and “It’s Time!” (1965); the pianist Andrew Hill’s “Black Fire (1964) and “Smokestack” (1966); and “Reaching Fourth” (1963), by the pianist McCoy Tyner.

From time to time he played alongside Tyner in the John Coltrane Quartet, serving as a backup whenever the band’s regular drummer, Elvin Jones, was unable to perform. His most prominent turn in the Coltrane band was at the 1963 Newport Jazz Festival.

In 1990 he played on the Pat Metheny album “Question and Answer” in 1990. Roy Haynes then featured Metheny on his own album, “Te-Vou!”.

He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 1995.

In 2000, he shared his second Grammy Award, for the album “Like Minds”. (He had won his first Grammy in 1988 playing in the McCoy Tyner album “Blues for Coltrane”.

He played in the 2010 Jazz at Lincoln Center tribute to himself.

In 2011 and 2019 he received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy in 2011 and the Jazz Foundation of America respectively.

And in 2011 he appeared on the “Late Show With David Letterman” with his Fountain of Youth band.