Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes (March 13, 1925 – November 12, 2024) was an American jazz drummer. In the 1950s, he was given the nickname "Snap Crackle" for his distinctive snare drum sound and musical vocabulary. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz.
Also recorded as Roy Owen Haynes · Roy Owens Haynes
Roy Haynes

Professor Bop · JAZZ: Roy Haynes - Carnegie Hall Concert 2007 #2 · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Roy Haynes
- Birth Name
- Roy Owen Haynes
- Born
- 13 March 1925
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Died
- 12 November 2024
- Place of death
- Nassau County, New York, U.S.
- Occupation
- Musician
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- music · jazz · percussion performance
- Honours
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres · Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award · NEA Jazz Masters
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Roy Owen Haynes (March 13, 1925 – November 12, 2024) was an American jazz drummer. In the 1950s, he was given the nickname "Snap Crackle" for his distinctive snare drum sound and musical vocabulary. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz.
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Roy Haynes (1925–2024) was an American conductor, drummer and musician. Born in Boston, the conductor died in Nassau County. Roy Haynes was active in jazz, music and percussion performance.
Genres include hard bop and jazz. Languages used include English. The conductor received Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and NEA Jazz Masters.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q448235 · wikipedia · Roy Haynes
In this article
Biography
Biography
In a career spanning more than eight decades, he played swing, bebop, jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz. He is considered to be a pioneer of jazz drumming. Haynes led bands, including the Hip Ensemble. His albums Fountain of Youth and Whereas were nominated for a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1999.
The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is music, jazz and percussion performance. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are jazz and hard bop. Distinctions recorded are Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and NEA Jazz Masters.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Roy Haynes • Birth Name — Roy Owen Haynes • Born — 13 March 1925 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 12 November 2024 • Place of death — Nassau County, New York, U.S. • Genre — Jazz • Instrument — Drums • Occupation — Musician • Years Active — 1942–2020 • Label — Mainstream, EmArcy, Galaxy, Impulse!, New Jazz, Vogue, Pacific Jazz, Evidence, Marge
Career
Career
• Illustration — Haynes performing in 1964 Haynes was born on March 13, 1925, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, to Gustavas and Edna Haynes, immigrants from Barbados. His younger brother, Michael E. Haynes, became an important leader in the African American community in Massachusetts, working with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, representing Roxbury in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and for forty years serving as pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church. King had been a member at the church while he pursued his doctoral degree at Boston University. Haynes made his professional debut in 1942 in Boston and began his full-time professional career in 1945. From 1947 to 1949 he worked with saxophonist Lester Young, and from 1949 to 1952 was a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's quintet. He also recorded at the time with pianist Bud Powell and saxophonists Wardell Gray and Stan Getz. From 1953 to 1958, he toured with singer Sarah Vaughan and recorded with her. In the 1950s he was given the nickname "Snap Crackle". In the 1960s, he was a member of the John Coltrane Quartet, often working as a sub for drummer Elvin Jones. In 1990, he co-led the album Question and Answer with Pat Metheny. Haynes led bands including the Hip Ensemble. A tribute song was recorded by Jim Keltner and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, and he appeared on stage with the Allman Brothers Band in 2006 and Page McConnell of Phish in 2008. "Age seems to have just passed him by," Watts observed. "He's eighty-three and in 2006 he was voted Best Contemporary Jazz Drummer [in Modern Drummer magazine 's readers' poll]. He's amazing." • Illustration — Haynes, George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55, Newport, Rhode Island, August 2009 In 2008, Haynes voiced a DJ for the fictional classic jazz radio station, Jazz Nation Radio 108.5 on the open-world video game Grand Theft Auto IV. His last album, Roy-Alty, was released in 2011.
Personal life
Personal life
His son Graham Haynes is a cornetist; another son Craig Holiday Haynes and grandson Marcus Gilmore are both drummers. Haynes was known to celebrate his birthdays on stage and in later years at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. His 95th birthday celebration in 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 12, 2024, following a short illness, Haynes died at age 99 in Nassau County, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island.
Compilations
Compilations
• Fountain of Youth (Dreyfus Jazz, 2004) – Grammy-nominated album
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Boston.
Birth place
Nassau County.
Death place
Selected discography
• Busman's Holiday (EmArcy, 1955) • Jazz Abroad (Mercury, 1956) – recorded in 1953. split album with Quincy Jones. • We Three with Paul Chambers & Phineas Newborn (New Jazz, 1959) – recorded in 1958 • Just Us (New Jazz, 1960) • Out of the Afternoon (Impulse!, 1962) • Cracklin with Booker Ervin (New Jazz, 1963) • Cymbalism (New Jazz, 1963). • Hip Ensemble (Mainstream, 1971) • Senyah (Mainstream, 1972) • Thank You Thank You (Galaxy, 1977) • Vistalite (Galaxy, 1979) – recorded in 1977 • Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker (Dreyfus Jazz, 2001) – Grammy-nominated album • Whereas (Dreyfus Jazz, 2006)
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Roy Haynes”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q448235: Roy Haynes
General reference · Wikidata
Awards and honors
A Life in Time – The Roy Haynes Story was named by The New Yorker magazine as one of the Best Boxed Sets of 2007 and was nominated for an award by the Jazz Journalist's Association. WKCR-FM, New York, surveyed Haynes's career in 301 hours of programming, January 11–23, 2009. Esquire named Roy Haynes one of the best-dressed men in America in 1960, along with Fred Astaire, Miles Davis, Clark Gable, and Cary Grant. • Illustration — Roy Haynes (left) and Gunther Schuller, January 2008 In 1994 Haynes was awarded the Danish Jazzpar Prize, and in 1996 the French government knighted him with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's top literary and artistic honor. In 1995, the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts named Haynes as a NEA Jazz Master. Haynes received honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music (1991), and the New England Conservatory of Music (2004), as well as a Peabody Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, in 2012. He was inducted into the DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame in 2004. On October 9, 2010, he was awarded the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's BNY Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. In 2001, Haynes's album Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker was nominated for the 44th Annual Grammy Awards as Best Jazz Instrumental Album. On December 22, 2010, Haynes was named a recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and he received the award at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception of the 54th Annual Grammy Awards on February 11, 2012. In 2019, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Jazz Foundation of America at the 28th Annual Loft Party. • Year — Result — Award — Category — Work • 1988 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group — Chick Corea – Trio Music, Live in Europe • 1989 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group — McCoy Tyner – Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane • 1996 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group — Kenny Barron – Wanton Spirit • 1998 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group — Chick Corea – Remembering Bud Powell • 2000 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group — Gary Burton – Like Minds • 2001 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2002 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Album — Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker • 2002 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2003 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2004 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Hall of Fame • 2004 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2005 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group — Fountain of Youth • 2005 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2007 — Grammy Award — Best Jazz Instrumental Solo — "Hippidy Hop" in A Life in Time: The Roy Haynes Story • 2007 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2008 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2009 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2010 — DownBeat Critics Poll — Drums • 2012 — Grammy Award — Lifetime Achievement Award • 2019 — Jazz Foundation of America — Lifetime Achievement Award
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band. Rensselaer.
- 2.Modern Drummer's Readers Poll Archive, 1979–2014. Modern Drummer.
- 3.Colin Larkin. The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz. Guinness Publishing. 195. 1992. 0-85112-580-8.
- 4.Levenson, Michael. The Rev. Michael Haynes, who made an impact across the state, dies at 92. Boston Globe. September 13, 2019.
- 5.Roy Haynes. Yamaha.
- 6.Feather, Leonard. Haynes, Roy Owen. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press. 306. 1999.
- 7.Stephenson, Sam. Jazzed About Roy Haynes. Smithsonian Magazine. December 2003.
- 8.Kahn, Ashley. Roy Haynes: Snap Crackle. Jazz Times. May 9, 2019.
- 9.In Memoriam: Roy Haynes, 1925–2024. downbeat.com. 2024-11-19.
- 10.Roy Haynes. AllMusic.
- 11.Rosebudus.com. Charlie Watts.
- 12.Hittin' the Note − 2006.
- 13.Roy Haynes with Page McConnell and Jon Fishman from Phish − photographic image. August 13, 2008.
- 14.Lawrence, Will. King Charles. Q. 262. 44. May 2008.
- 15.Roy Haynes Hits The Video Game World, Grand Theft Auto Style. downbeat.com. May 21, 2008.
- 16.Chinen, Nate. Roy Haynes, a Giant of Jazz Drumming, Is Dead at 99. The New York Times. November 12, 2024.
- 17.Beener, Angelika. When Your Grandfather Is The Greatest Living Jazz Drummer. NPR. February 6, 2013.
- 18.Roy Haynes. DrummerWorld.
- 19.Shteamer, Hank. Flashback: Roy Haynes Journeys From Free Jazz to Bebop at the White House. Rolling Stone. March 13, 2020.
- 20.Ratliff, Ben. Roy Haynes, pioneering modern jazz drummer, has died at 99. WUNC. November 12, 2024.
- 21.The Liberation of Eric Reed.
- 22.Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. Roy Haynes, jazz drummer whose career spanned nine decades, dies aged 99. The Guardian.
- 23.Top CD Boxed Sets of 2007. The New Yorker. November 18, 2007.
- 24.Jazz Journalists Association: Jazz Awards: 2008. JazzHouse.
- 25.Wkcr.org. WKCR 89.9FM NY.
- 26.Time Out New York − The Tony Blog. Roy Haynes marathon coming soon on WKCR.
- 27.Roy Haynes: Biography. Blue Note Records.
- 28.Roy Haynes. NEA.
- 29.Honorary Degree Recipients. Berklee College of Music.
- 30.NEC Honorary Doctor of Music Degree. New England Conservatory.
- 31.George Peabody Medal Recipients. Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute.
- 32.Roy Haynes. Downbeat.
- 33.Roy Haynes – 2010 Living Legacy Awardee. Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
- 34.Roy Haynes. Recording Academy. November 23, 2020.
- 35.The Recording Academy Announces Special Merit Award Honorees. Grammy.com News.
- 36.Grammy Week. Billboard. 53. January 7, 2012.
- 37.Jones, Stephanie. Jazz Foundation of America Honors Roy Haynes, Raises $475K at Annual Loft Party. DownBeat. October 23, 2019.
- 38.downbeat.com. 2001 Down Beat Critics Poll.
- 39.downbeat.com. 2002 Down Beat Critics Poll.
- 40.bmi.com. BMI Dominates Downbeat Critics Poll. June 26, 2003.
- 41.Hull, Tom. Downbeat Critics Poll: 2004. Tom Hull – on the Web.
- 42.Hull, Tom. Downbeat Critics Poll: 2005. Tom Hull – on the Web.
- 43.bmi.com. BMI Jazz Giants Score in Down Beat 2007 Critics Poll. July 27, 2007.
- 44.Hull, Tom. Downbeat Critics Poll: 2008. Tom Hull – on the Web.
- 45.Hull, Tom. Downbeat Critics Poll: 2009. Tom Hull – on the Web.
- 46.Critics Poll Winners: Drums. DownBeat. 51. August 2010.
- 47.Roy Haynes Discography. Jazzdisco.org.
- 48.Mercury Records Catalog: EmArcy 36000 series. Jazzdisco.org.
- 49.The Billboard Publishing Co. New Releases. Billboard. May 4, 1959.
- 50.The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY. May Album Releases. The Cash Box. May 16, 1959.
- 51.New Jazz Records discography accessed March 28, 2014
- 52.New Jazz Records discography accessed March 28, 2014
- 53.Yanow, S. Allmusic Review accessed March 28, 2014
- 54.Editorial Staff, Cash Box. July Album Releases. Cash Box. The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY. July 21, 1962.
- 55.Editorial Staff, Billboard. Out of the Afternoon. Billboard Music Week. The Billboard Publishing Co. August 18, 1962.
- 56.The Cash Box Publishing Co. Prestige & Subsids Bow New Product. Cash Box. July 6, 1963.
- 57.Roy Haynes discography on Jazzdisco.org. Accessed March 28, 2014
- 58.Roy Haynes discography accessed March 28, 2014
- 59.Cook, Richard. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. Penguin. 675. 2008. 978-0-141-03401-0.
- 60.Roy Haynes discography accessed August 13, 2014
- 61.Wynn, R., Allmusic Review accessed August 13, 2014
- 62.Roy Haynes discography accessed August 13, 2014
- 63.Wynn, R., Allmusic Review accessed August 13, 2014
- 64.Jazzlists: Galaxy 5100 series discography accessed October 24, 2017
- 65.Galaxy Records catalog , accessed October 24, 2017
- 66.Roy Haynes catalog, Jazzdisco.org, accessed October 24, 2017
- 67.Both Sides Now: Galaxy Album Discography, Bsnpubs.com, accessed October 24, 2017
- 68.Jazzlists: Galaxy 5100 series discography, Jazzlists.com, accessed October 24, 2017
- 69.Galaxy Records catalog, Jazzdisco.org, accessed October 24, 2017
- 70.Roy Haynes catalog , accessed October 24, 2017
- 71.Both Sides Now: Galaxy Album Discography , accessed October 24, 2017
- 72.Dreyfus Records − Whereas. November 13, 2007.
- 73.Fountain of Youth.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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