The passing of Roy Haynes brings back a special memory for me. July 10, 1983 at the North Sea Jazz Festival held back then in Den Haag (The Hague), Holland.
On stage were the Freddie Hubbard Festival All Stars, a group that was well named. Hubbard (trumpet and flugel); Lew Tabackin (tenor sax and flute); Joanne Brackeen (piano); Charlie Haden (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). The music was hard bop with perhaps a look to the future. None of the five were musicians living on past glories but players, as I thought then, at the pinnacle of their careers never dreaming that Roy Haynes would still be with us until yesterday (Nov. 12).
There were a lot of great drummers in Den Haag that weekend: Shelly Manne, Tony Williams, Jeff Hamilton, Butch Miles, Oliver Jackson, Danny Richmond, Panama Francis, Martin Drew, Duffy Jackson and Frank Gant. I doubt if any one of them hadn't, at some point in their professional life, been influenced by Roy Haynes.
He was that pivotal and influential a figure.
We were privileged to have had him for 99 years.
May he Rest In Peace. Lance
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