Pioneering jazz drummer Roy Haynes has died at the age of 99

Roy Haynes, a pioneering jazz drummer who became one of the most recorded percussionists in music history, has died aged 99.

According to the New York TimesHaynes' daughter – Leslie Haynes-Gilmore – confirmed that the drummer died on Tuesday (November 12) in Nassau County, New York after a brief illness.

Born March 13, 1925, Haynes grew up in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning his musical career in the early 1940s and becoming a professional drummer in 1945. Throughout the decade, he worked with saxophonists. Lester Young and appeared as part of the Charlie Parker Quintet from 1949 to 1952.

Haynes also received a role in Duke Ellington's band in 1952, eventually turning it down due to his desire to join smaller bands that allowed more room for musical expression.

Haynes' recording record is impressive, having appeared as a sideman for names as revered and recognized as Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Ray Charles, Stan Getz and countless others before the advent of the 1960s Alongside this work as a sideman, his production as a bandleader was equally prolific, with his first record – Busman's Holiday – arrival in 1954.

Haynes received his first Grammy Award nomination in 1988 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group for his work with Chick Corea. Over the next 19 years, he would receive two awards out of his eight nominations. In 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Grammys, with another Lifetime Achievement Award coming from the Jazz Foundation of America in 2019.

Haynes' other awards included the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government in 1996 and honorary doctorates from both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. in 2004, DownBeat The magazine inducted him into their Hall of Fame, having his name in readers' and critics' polls on 14 occasions.