Roy Haynes - Chosen Soloist Marshall Williams S19

Roy Haynes was born 1925 in Boston and, as so often is the case with the exceedingly
talented, he was destined to play drums. Roy describes himself as a natural drummer, he was
primarily self-taught and had no formal lessons as a child. He started playing with a broken pair
of sticks and drumming on the walls and furniture of the house. “I did a little bit of drum and
bugle corps drumming in school, but I was never really a rudimental drummer, so I think my
sound comes from my mind more than my hands.” Roy’s main influences are Papa Jo Jones
and Chick Webb.

Roy’s career began in the bebop era but doesn’t like the term bebop drummer. “I'm not
always comfortable with those labels that people use. I'm just an old-time drummer who tries
to play with feeling.” He may have began in bebop and be an “old school guy” as Chick Corea
describes him, but in every decade he has been associated with musicians on the cutting
edge, having worked with such artists as Lester Young and Charlie Parker in the 1940s, Bud
Powell, Sarah Vaughan and Thelonious Monk in the '50s, Stan Getz and Gary Burton in the
'60s, Chick Corea in the '70s and '80s, and Pat Metheny in the '80s and ‘90s. As a younger
drummer, he frequented the legendary 52nd St, sitting in on sessions and gigging with the
giants of the times.

Roy has played in many different musical situations, adjusting his style slightly to fit but
always staying true to himself. Chick Corea describes Roy’s playing as “Not complex. Just real
simple, just true, not made more complex by philosophical significance.”

Roy explains his style, “I didn’t always play the beat, which I thought was very good.
You don’t always have to say ding ding-da ding ding-da ding, you know. It’s there! You’ve got
to have that ‘ding-ding-dading’ within yourself. Coltrane had it! Pres had it. Miles has it. So, it’s
beautiful to play with them.”

Roy’s biggest influence was Papa Jo Jones and in his 1958 “Rhythm-A-Ning” solo you
can see that influence come through. Heavy use of the snare as the primary voice of the solo is
used through out. Long accented triplets with accents are used throughout the solo as well,
another Papa Jo characteristic. Roy is by no means a Papa Jo copy. The use of stick shots,
snare buzzes and the bass drum as additional tones and melodic voices come from bebop.
Roy uses cross rhythms, another bebop characteristic, heavily throughout the solo. Bars 1-3,
11-12, 20-22, 53-54 use all of these bebop devices. Roy isn’t just playing straight 8th notes the
whole solo, simple syncopated rhythms phrased around the kit give us a little break from the
fiery bebop language, but he does this in larger chunks of 4 or 8 bars.

10 years later in 1968 Roy trades choruses with Chick Corea on “Matrix”. Roy sounds
incredibly different. However, Roy is simply making adjustments to match the innovative band
he found himself in. There are very clear bebop licks and devices used throughout the
choruses. Bar 4 of Matrix is nearly identical to Bar 4 of RaN. The repeated lick in Bar 23-24 of
RaN is used in every chorus of Matrix, most often at the end of the 12 bars, possibly in order to
cue Piano. Bar 16 of RaN is the same as Bar 11 of Matrix. All of these licks are coming from the
bebop phrase book. Cross rhythms immediately found in bars 7-8 of Matrix, as well as later on
in the choruses.

Roy pushed some of the qualities of RaN to the next level in Matrix. Instead of using
simple syncopation as a contrast to the bebop licks, he uses syncopation in an equally fiery
way. The first chorus of Matrix opens with 8 bars of heavy syncopation. Nearly all of the 3rd
chorus is syncopated with space filled in with the ride cymbal, as if he is accompanying himself
with the ride. That “space” Roy uses comes and goes much quicker than the functional 4 and
8 bars of syncopation from RaN. In the 2nd chorus of Matrix we get an explosion of triplets
followed by two bars of space, which is repeated for the 4 bars. In the last chorus we get a
similar triplet flurry but then followed by just 2 bars of simple syncopation. This still gives a
sense of space as a contrast.

I think the most notable thing about these two solos is how Roy is playing what he
hears. In interviews he talks a lot about playing genuinely and with feeling. Although much of
the rhythmic or tonal content may be similar in these solos, it is the change in feeling, touch, or
attitude that gives Matrix such an intensity, making the 10 years in between RaN feel like 40.