JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Roy Haynes was one of the last giants of modern jazz who was present at its birth. His eight decades of drumming spanned from the swing and bebop eras to the avant-garde. Haynes played with just about all of the greats and helped change the direction of jazz improvisation. Roy Haynes died today at age 99. NPR's Eric Westervelt has this appreciation.
(SOUNDBITE OF LESTER YOUNG'S "DING DONG")
ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE: Roy Haynes' nickname was Snap Crackle, and you could hear it from his earliest recordings - that crisp, rapid-fire snare drum and the sting he brought his symbols.
(SOUNDBITE OF LESTER YOUNG'S "DING DONG")
WESTERVELT: Haynes brought those tools, especially the snare, to the four of a rhythm. Here he is from the 2007 documentary film "A Life In Time."
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "A LIFE IN TIME")
ROY HAYNES: You make it crackle, and you make it snap, like you can hit a rim shot. A rim shot is when you hit the rim of the drum and the drum head at the same time. You get a snap and bap.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WESTERVELT: Haynes was born in the Roxbury section of Boston in 1925. His Barbados-born parents loved music - all different kinds. His brother was in a high school drum and bugle corps, which sparked his interest in percussion, as Haynes told NPR in 1997.
HAYNES: And I picked up his sticks around the house, and boom - I started banging on everything. So later on, I started getting pieces of the trap set - like the snare drum, bass drum and cymbals. I bought them one piece at a time. And before you know it, I was about 16 years old, and I started banging on them and started making gigs.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WESTERVELT: By the early 1940s, Haynes was playing out in Boston nightclubs.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUD POWELL'S "LITTLE WILLIE LEAPS")
WESTERVELT: Over the next 50-plus years, Haynes would sit behind the drum kit and offer his polyrhythmic lines for the most innovative musicians each decade had to offer - Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chick Corea and many more.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUD POWELL'S "LITTLE WILLIE LEAPS")
WESTERVELT: Underscoring his versatility, Haynes backed the top singers Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOW HIGH IS THE MOON")
SARAH VAUGHAN: (Singing) Somewhere there's music, how faint the tune. Somewhere there's heaven, how high the moon.
WESTERVELT: And he could easily follow musicians, like pioneering free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and they got a little out there.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHAROAH SANDERS' "MORNING PRAYER")
WESTERVELT: He influenced at least three generations of drummers with his relentless energy, creativity and mastery.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SNAP CRACKLE")
ROY HAYNES QUARTET: Roy Haynes.
KEN MCAULIFFE: He had so much fire and power, but also a real sense of grace and wit.
WESTERVELT: Music journalist Ken McAuliffe says Haynes' drum work was key to helping jazz transition from swing to bebop and beyond.
MCAULIFFE: He broke up the ding, ding, da-ding, ding, ding, da-ding pattern you heard going back to big band drummers and just made it all a lot more conversational. And by doing that, he also, you know, freed up the soloist, as well - from Charlie Parker to Chick Corea to Pat Metheny.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WESTERVELT: Wiry, with a broad smile, Roy Haynes loved sports cars and sharp suits - preferably worn with dark sunglasses. But friends say he was most at home behind the drum kit. And even though recording sessions diminished as he got older, Haynes kept playing clubs and concerts well into his 90s, and he continued to mentor and inspire younger jazz musicians to the very end.
HAYNES: From Louis Armstrong to Pat Metheny, I'm sure I covered the waterfront. That's a lot of territory. You getting me serious now. Where's my cognac (laughter)?
WESTERVELT: Eric Westervelt, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROY HAYNES' "BYE YA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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