Roy Haynes, legendary jazz drummer, dead at 99

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Roy Haynes, one of the world’s most influential jazz drummers, has died at age 99.

Haynes passed away in Nassau County, New York following a brief illness, his daughter Leslie Haynes-Gilmore told the New York Times in an article published Tuesday.

Haynes’ son Craig Holiday Haynes confirmed his father’s death in a post on Facebook Tuesday.

“Thanks for all your hipness dad R.I.P.,” the post reads.

Roy Haynes was born in Boston on March 13, 1925 and started his musical career in 1942 as a largely self-taught drummer, according to specialist publication Drummerworld.

He went on to work with some of the biggest names in jazz, as well as leading his own bands.

He displayed a natural affinity for the drums. “I just knew I was a drummer,” he told Modern Drummer magazine in a 2004 interview.

“I was banging on everything in the house. I may have been eight or nine when my father wanted me to get some drum lessons.”

Haynes went on to feature in hundreds of jazz recordings over the course of a career spanning decades, forging a reputation as one of the best in the business, but he flew largely under the radar in the wider public consciousness, perhaps due to his position as a drummer in a world dominated by front men.

He also famously turned down the chance to join Duke Ellington’s band as drum chair, preferring to focus on his own music despite the prestige that the position would have brought.

Haynes recalled how Ellington never let him forget about the snub in an interview with Smithsonian magazine published in 2003.

“I would run into Duke at different parties and restaurants, and he would always remind me that I didn’t join his band,” said Haynes.

“He would make a joke of it. I thought it was so beautiful that he would do that.”

Haynes was also known for his sharp dress sense and a love of fast cars, recounting how he used to race Miles Davis through New York’s Central Park in the 1950s.

“Miles and I used to race our cars through Central Park at night with our tops down,” he told the Smithsonian. “It was a wild, hip time.”

Haynes would go on to win two Grammy awards and was nominated a further eight times over his glittering career.

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