Roy Haynes 1925-2024
Saturday 21st December 2024, 17:00 – House of Hard Bop.
Drummer Roy Haynes recently passed away at the age of 99. He started out as a professional in the 1940s, played with Lester Young, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Pat Metheny (“Roy is my Number One Hero on Earth.”) and remained active into the 21st century. Stylistically, he grew along with jazz developments – starting in swing, and via bop ending in fusion. But hard bop was number one. Like Art Blakey, he gathered younger generations of musicians around him at a later age.
In 2001, the album Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker was released.*) That resulted in a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
Tribute is a common phenomenon in jazz. A tribute to a valued, often already deceased musician/composer. In 2005, Monk’s Casino was released, on which the German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach recorded his interpretation of no less than all – more than 55 – compositions by Thelonious Monk in a quintet setting. Tributers do put some things their own way.
Parkers Diverse opens the party. The A-part of the song form is 100% monophonic, including bass and drums. The melodic theme gets all the attention, and the bridge more profile. The following Ah-Leu-Cha starts polyphonically, melodically polyphonic. The bridge is for the solo drummer. Making music is variation.
In 1950, a quintet led by Charlie Parker performed in the St. Nicholas Arena. Roy Haynes on drums. A qualitatively very poor, amateurish recording of this live performance was released as Bird at St. Nick’s. One of the recorded pieces is Parker’s Now’s the Time **). This composition is completely pulled apart by the Roy Haynes quintet. The familiar motifs and short phrases pass by in fragments. No chord scheme. One keynote, F. This is not 1950 but 2001. Exciting, from start to finish. Maximum groupiness. And what do we hear at the end? The Time!
You will hear a total of 10 pieces from Birds of a Feather – in addition to the Parker compositions, also work by ‘related’ composers. Gerry Mulligan, Cole Porter, Billy Reid and Vernon Duke.
Kenny Garrett – alto sax
Roy Hargrove – trumpet
Dave Holland – bass
David Kikoski – piano
Roy Haynes – drums
See the announcement in the Guide
House of Hard Bop – Eric Ineke *)
Birds of a feather flock together = “kind seeks kind” **) Now’s the Time
This composition by Parker is one of his ‘simpler’ pieces. A blues, based on a riff – a repeated motif. But what a sophisticated perfection within those 12 bars! The four-note opening motif, with only one rhythmic figure, covers three beats within bar 1. In bar 2 the repetition follows. In bars 3 and 4 this is continued, but without the rest on the 4th beat of bar 3. That helps things along. Bar 5 resumes the motif, but comes with a surprising, low tone on the three and a half beat; also a rhythmically surprising moment. In bar 6 the same, the low tone now shifts upwards: an intensifying effect that creates an apparent two-part harmony. Bars 7 and 8 take a step back with a repetition of bars 3 and 4. In the four final bars the discharge follows, melodically still ending on a tense note: the tritone cherished in the bop – the diminished fifth in relation to the keynote.
