LONG ISLAND, NY (CelebrityAccess) — Roy Haynes, a Grammy-winning pionering musician and band leader with a career that spanned more than 70 years became one of the most recorded jazz drummers in history, has died. He was 99.
According to the New York Times, his daughter, Leslie Haynes-Gilmore, said that he died at home after a short illnessm, but did not provide additional details about his passing.
A Boston native, Haynes made his professional debut at the age of 17 in 1942 and was working full time as a musician by 1945.
He went on to record with a who’s who of fellow jazz legends, including Stan Getz, Lester Young, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Corea among numerous others.
Along with his work as a sideman, he was a prolific band leader and recording artist in his own right, leading groups such as Hip Ensemble, and the Roy Haynes Trio, among others.
During his career, Haynes won numerous Grammy Awards, including in 2012 when he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
His accolades also include numerous Downbeat Jazz Critics and Reader Poll awards, and 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 2010.
In 1996, he was endowed with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s top literary and artistic honor and was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Jazz Foundation of America at the 28th Annual Loft Party in 2019.
