Nine plus, well I'll tell you, it's a nice feeling walking in on...that song does it man, blap, blap, blap, blap bu du ba.

Yeah, it's a nice tune and obviously you do it...

It's a nice feeling in there.

You know, a couple of weeks ago, actually I guess about two months ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Allen Dawson and he was telling me about growing up in Boston and how there was this drummer - who was only a few years older then he was - that he said that he just admired so much and he was talking about you, Roy Haynes.

Oh yeah, well that's a nice feeling. Yea.

You two have never swapped notes or sat down and talked about this?

Well, not exactly like that, but I guess we mention it every now and then because he lived not to far from me, and I do remember going to this camp. I guess I was a teenager and I had this little

wooden snare drum and I sent home to have my snare drum down at camp. And when it arrived, I remember Alan Dawson looking at it and I didn't know he was into drums. He was just a few years younger than me, so he may have been ten or eleven, if I was thirteen, fourteen, whatever. So we knew each other way back and that was maybe late thirties, earlier forties. I left Boston in 1945 and I had been playing, I guess you would call it professionally, because I belonged to the Union here a couple of years before I left…maybe a few years before I left.

That was what? Five thirty five, is that...?

Exactly. Five thirty five on Massachusetts Avenue.

They are about to have their reunion incidentally too, as a matter of fact. In September, I think it is.

Yeah.

Roy Haynes is our guest and it is a pleasure to have Roy here with us. He has a new CD out entitled Homecoming, and we didn't mention personnel. Of course, Roy Haynes on drums, Craig Handy on tenor, a guy who use to live here in Boston as a matter of fact, Dave Kikoski on piano, and Ed Howard is the bass player on this release. Is that the band tomorrow?

Same rhythm section. Ralph Moore will be playing tenor sax tomorrow in place of Craig Handy.

Oh really?

Yes, you know he went to school here in Boston. He did the record True or False that we also had made in France.

Is it just coincidence or have you actually touched…tapped Boston for a number of musicians. I'm thinking Hannibal Marvin Peterson, when he joined your band, I think he was living here in Boston....

I don't know. I don't think he was in Boston.

Well, he did live here in Boston.

Oh yeah? What has been happening lately is the school itself, the schools, like Berklee and New England Conservatory of Music, a lot of the guys they come and study here, so they stay here. And a lot of people think that some of them are from here, and maybe after you stay here a while, you are considered from here. But Kikoski is from New Jersey.

Oh is that right?

Yeah.

I also read somewhere, Roy, that you’ve got…well, I know about Graham Haynes, your son the trumpeter/cornet player. There’s another son, a percussionist?

Craig yes, my oldest son. He was playing with Sun Ra and I think he was here with…what's the singer? Gloria Lynn.

Is he with Cassandra Wilson?

No, I don't think so, but he was here with Gloria Lynn though.

There was a percussionist on Saturday at Newport with Cassandra Wilson and his name was Haynes.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We're not related. I know him as well. In fact, he had played with me a bit too. His folks are from the same island, Barbados, as mine Barbados, so you know how that works. Somewhere down the line.

How often do you get a chance to play with your sons? Do you get a chance to play with any of your sons?

Well, Graham. I'll be with Graham next week. We are going to the Village Vanguard.

Oh really?

Yes, Graham will be there with us. That will be the first time that he's done a full week, but he played with me at a festival in Barbados and also some other clubs one night. And Grant's Tomb, which is the Jazzmobile. He has played there several times with me. But this will be the first week. We also recorded for a Japanese label that was never released there, in this country, anyhow.

But your other son has not, Craig has not played...?

Well Craig, by him playing the same, playing drums…but when I was signed with Mainstream, he did some percussion stuff on there with me. That was when I had the Hip Ensemble, way back.

Like Senyah or one of those things?

Ahh, it may have been Senyah, although it may have been the first one, which would have been Hip Ensemble. I forget exactly which one it was.

Hmmm, I’ll have to see if we can't dig those up, too, as a matter of fact. Roy, because we have long tunes, why don't we pick out another tune from your new CD to play?

‘Bud Powell’ that's written by Chick Corea, and naturally, it's dedicated to the late pianist, Bud Powell.

Now we haven't even mentioned half of the people that you have played with, although we have mentioned several. But Chick, of course, is another person you've played with for years too, for a time. Was it years?

Was it years?

That's what I'm asking?

No, it was never any length. Usually we just do a special project for a month or so, something like that. I was never a member of any of his ensembles like that, you know.

I think they had you on a couple of records with him where they didn't list the personnel.

OK, that started…that was back in the sixties.

Right.

Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, which ended up being a classic. I imagine he felt bad about that. I heard different stories. I bumped into one guy once over at some place in New York and he told me that Chick didn't want to put the names on it, but Chic never said that, you know.

That sounds strange.

It doesn't feel right.

Most musicians, besides for Miles, used to put the names.

But I tell you one thing that happened. When that record came out, there was a lot of controversy. Lot of people knew who it was, you know.

I'm sure. Your sound is so distinctive that I'm sure a lot of people recognized your...

Well, the people that were into the music, I would think anyhow.

Roy Haynes is our guest, we're going to take a listen to something else from his new CD which is entitled “Homecoming”. It was recorded here in Boston, June 27, 1992 at Scullers Jazz Club in the Guest Quarters Suite Hotel. Roy Haynes will be appearing there again tomorrow night and so you can get out to see him and his band tomorrow. Right now you can listen to something from this brand new CD, which was, incidentally, produced by our own Steve Schwartz. This is from Roy Haynes new one, Homecoming.

And that is Roy Haynes. That is from his new release, Homecoming. “Bud Powell” is the name of that tune. Roy Haynes on drums; Craig Handy on tenor; David Kikoski on piano; with Ed Howard on bass. Recorded by 89.7 FM at Scullers, June 27, 1992. You know, sometimes when we play these things that we record, I say, “Well, this is special. You can't go to your favorite record store and buy this.” Well, you can go to your favorite record store and buy this.

Please, please

Yea, please, please, Roy said. You didn't hear that. But this one is available at your favorite record store. It's on a compact disc entitled Homecoming. We are going to talk some more with Roy Haynes in just a moment.

And this is Eric Jackson here with you. Coming up in twenty-five minutes or so, we'll check in with National Public Radio for news headlines. We do that every evening at about 10:01 and then at about eleven o'clock tonight, we will have Jazz Set hosted by Branford Marsalis. Jazz Set comes your way every Wednesday Night and tonight on Jazz Set, a tribute to Ed Blackwell. That's coming up at eleven tonight. Roy Haynes is sitting here in the studio with us and it's a pleasure to welcome Roy Haynes home, homecoming.

Thank you very much.

Roy, I got the question, and you said it's the question you always get. I guess we could, should we start with Charlie Parker? Tell us about your experiences with Bird.

Oh boy, I get this question every time I appear some place.

I know you do.

And sometimes I really don't know how I'm going to answer it, you know but I use to say that the drums seemed to play themselves. I was just sitting there. But I'll tell you one experience I do remember. In 1950 working in New York at a place called Cafe Society with Charlie Parker, and I think Kenny Durham was with us at that time. And Art Tatum was playing opposite us at this club, Cafe Society, and during those days, they didn't have air conditioning. The club was packed and we were wearing ties and suits and everything. And Billie Holliday came and sat in with us. Can you imagine? Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday!...and I had just bought my first car that same week. We were there for four weeks. So why I mention the air conditioning was we would stay in the club during the intermission to listen to Art Tatum. It was such a feeling with Charlie Parker and that engagement I'll never forget. I'll remember that always.

Now how old were you when you first joined Bird?

How old was I? I can tell you what year it was, but I don't remember exactly how old. It was 1949 so I probably was twenty four, maybe. I was never good in math, and if any of my teachers are listening, if they are still living, they know all about that, you what I mean?

What was that like for you at twenty four years old to be playing...

…playing with Bird? Well, today that probably seems like nothing to some of the younger guys playing. I was younger then that when I joined Lester Young. I was with Lester Young for two years, you know. But it felt good, you know. It was a very exciting period in New York in 1949, you know. It was…Oh man, Birdland had just opened that year and everything. Ninety-nine cents to go in and they had lines outside; they had around five different bands in there. Just the…New York was, you know, that time, and then to play with Charlie Parker! Oh man… That was it!

When were you with Prez then?

I joined Lester Young 1947 at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, you know. In fact, I was working...were you familiar with Phil Edmond here in Boston?

No.

Felix Barboza. I think he just passed away last year. Anyhow I was working with him the summer of 1945 and we were playing at Martha's Vineyard and I got a special delivery from New York from Louis Russell. And he wanted me to join his band. He sent this letter to the Union - 535 that we mentioned earlier - and they knew where I was. They sent a letter to where we were on Martha's Vineyard, so I told him I was interested in joining the band but I couldn't join until after Labor Day. So when Labor Day was over, I took a train. He sent me a one way train ticket to come to New York. I started with him at the Savoy Ballroom in 1945 and then a couple of years later, I started with Lester Young at the same place and then Norman Granz started his Jazz at the Philharmonic during the summer of 1949 and that's when I left Lester Young. The reason I left was that Lester Young went by himself with Jazz Philharmonic, you know. So then I started getting pretty popular around Fifty Second street with different players and Miles started a band during that summer and I had went with Miles and then Charlie Parker wanted me and Miles used to say well, Charlie Parker stole his drummer.

Well, there have been loads of stories about Miles stealing other people’s musicians for years. too.

Oh definitely. He probably learned a lot of that from Charlie Parker, and people like Charlie Parker.

Fair is Fair. Now, I heard some tales in the late forties of Miles playing at the Audubon Ballroom with a band that had Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane in it. Were you ever part of those nights?

No, but I had a band there at the same Audubon Ballroom with Sonny Rollins.

Is that right?

Yeah. Well Sonny…when I played with Lester Young, see, I lived upon what they called Sugar Hill in New York. And Sonny Rollins, he was a little younger than me. They had a group of younger guys that were coming along, you know, and if you are two years older then somebody during that period, then you are old, you know what I mean? So, Sonny Rollins used to come by my house with some other guys. I didn't even know he played an instrument till one day I saw him on a Saturday night with this horn, and I said, you know, “what's up”? He said, “I had a little gig.” I said, “A gig?” You know. So that's the first time I found out he played. But he did work with me at the Audubon Ballroom. That's the same place where Malcolm X got assassinated.

OK. Let’s talk about the years you spent with Sarah Vaughn.

OK. I joined Sarah Vaughn the summer of 1953 and I loved it. We were playing places like Las Vegas, the Sahara Hotel and Miami Beach. We were wearing tuxedos and…well Birdland too, we didn't have to wear a tux there, but it was exciting, you know. I was getting a paycheck, even though it wasn't a whole lot of money, every week. Changing my cars up…buying new cars. And Sarah was just like a genius, you know, because she played with Charlie Parker and Dizzy and all them, so I enjoyed it just as much.

You hear that the drummers…it's so important to…or that relationship between the drummer and vocalist is so important…

Oh man…

…Because the drummer can just wipe out a vocalist.

You can wipe out a band. I heard Baby Dodds say you can make a band sound evil. If you’re evil, you make the band sound evil. You can make or break…, you know. A drummer is very important in a band. I guess that's why the word “drum major”, you know…leading a marching band, you know. A drummer is very important. He can make it swing or make it horrible.

When you went with Sarah then, had you done much work with vocalists before that?

Well, during the period I was with Lester Young, I had to accompany Sarah in Chicago. I think we were there for more than two weeks, and they always wanted me to be her drummer

because she was married to George Treadwell during that time and they remembered me from then. And also the first week I joined Lester Young, I had to accompany Billie Holiday, ‘cause we did a concert at Town Hall downtown New York, Manhattan. So that was the first time playing with Billie Holiday. Then I played with her again later up here in Boston at Storyville, several times. Did a radio broadcast that ended up coming out on records, you know.

You know, I'm sure you must think about it sometime, you know, this is all a little bit before people had cassette players. So most of this is not, what's that line Eric Dolphy said, “Once you hear the music, it's in the air and it's gone and can never be captured again…” or something like that. You know since all of this was a few years before the portable cassette player, it's in the air and it's gone. It can never be captured again.

Well yeah, but they had wire recorders and tapes. In Chicago when you would go to the gigs, they had the wire recorders there, you know. I remember Charlie Parker being at a place in Chicago and they had one on the stage and every time he would see it, he would pull the plug out and when he would turn his back, they would put the plug back in.

Oh, is that right?

Yeah, a whole big scene. He kept pulling the plug out, you know.

Yeah, that's interesting, so he…because there is somebody that’s got…Mosiac Records has this great big set by someone named Benedetti or something like that. Over a hundred dollars for this set of Charlie Parker and he didn't like the idea of being recorded.

Well, he probably knew that Benedetti…he may have because I do remember Benedetti and this other guy that played trombone - I can't remember his name. They would even come to Philadelphia, you know, we would be playing there and I remember them.

Well, we've only got a few more minutes because I do want to get in one more tune from your recording, but I also want to talk to you about John Coltrane.

Oh bad, John Coltrane, I often explained the feeling I had with John Coltrane. It reminded me of a Pentecostal Church. I went to one when I was young. And John, he had that…Man, he was so spiritual and he would, aww, it seemed… I don't know…it was like playing with Count Basie's big band and more to play with John Coltrane. I played a place in Montreal, Canada and I used to have to hold myself to walk down the stairs at the end of the night so my insides wouldn't fall out after playing with him. It was Oooh, but it was a good feeling, you know.

Now, when you joined Coltrane's band, was it...

Well, I was never a member…

That's what I was going to ask you. Was it a temporary...

I was filling.

That's exactly what I was going to ask you.

It wasn't even temporary. I just filled in a few different times.

But weren't you, wasn't it like for a few months when Elvin was away or something.

Naw, naw, it was never that long.

Is that right?

No, I hear people say that but it was in '63, maybe in '65. I know one point I was in California with Stan Getz and we were playing in Hollywood a place called…I forget the name of the place but it was on Sunset Blvd. And we had just followed Miles in there and Miles was packing 'em in and when we went in with Getz, it was before he did those bossa nova things and he wasn't drawing in a lot of people during that time. So we just end up playing weekends, like three days a week. So the first part of the week, Coltrane had come in town and Elvin didn't make it with him and I guess he found out that I was in town and found out where I was staying. So I played the first part of the week with Coltrane and then play the weekend with Stan Getz. And then once I did Canada with him and I came to Newport with him one year. I think we came from Canada....

1963

Okay 1963, right. So there were several different times, you know. I went into the studio with him once or twice.

One of the things that those '63 recordings showed, at time at least, you were using brushes an awful lot.

No, I think it was just recorded that way.

Is that right? It's just a snare?

That's the left hand on the snare.

Is that was that is?

That's definitely ‘cause with 'Trane, man, playing that pulsation, you couldn't play no brushes there…and outdoors too!

Yeah.

No, because evidently they didn't have a microphone on the cymbal or something like that, or it wasn't up. You are hearing a left hand. You are not hearing the right hand a lot. So that's not brushes, my brother.

Ok.

You don't get any points for that. You’re losing points.

I'll see if I can't play it in a little while and take a listen to that too, as a matter of fact. Roy, we are going to…I'd like to see if we can't play one other thing from this. Do you have a choice for us?

You know, I haven't listened to all of that, so you know, I do know “Bud Powell”. Let's see what else, what else is there?

You can't see it in this dark, can you? We've got “Equinox”, which is too long. “You’re Blasé”, “Star Eyes”, “Anniversary Song” and we've done the others.

“Anniversary Song”. How long…is that too long?

Well, if we start it right away, it's not too long.

Just play a little of it and if you have to fade out and fade me out, it's no problem.

I don't want to do that. Roy Haynes. Tomorrow night, one night only, at Scullers in the Guest Quarters Suite Hotel. Right?

That's it.

And the band again?

The band is Ralph Moore on tenor saxophone; Dave Kikoski on piano; Ed Howard on bass; and myself on drums and on and on and on, the music will go.

And I'm sure there will be a lot of folks that want to come out because it's in Boston and so if they want to do that, they should do what.

Oh well, the phone number is 562-4111 and you got to see Roy's pants. These are amazing. If you don't come for the music, you got to come for these pants that he is wearing.

It's like unbelievable.

Maybe I wear the wear the pants for the party, but I don't know if I'll wear 'em for the performance.

Oh no, these are great.

The ladies really like them.

I've never seen anything quite like them.

You don't live in New York.

OK yeah. Don't forget Roy Haynes has out a new compact disc called Homecoming and we're going to hear something from this brand new release right now. Roy Haynes, thank you very much.

Oh yeah, thank you too. It's nice being here.