The Roy Haynes Trio

1	Wail 3:19
2	Questions and Answers 7:08
3	Shulie a Bop 3:34
4	Dear Old Stockholm 6:05
5	It's Easy to Remember 6:40
6	Folk Song 5:33
7	Sippin' at Bells 7:07
8	Bright Mississippi 9:39
9	Prelude To A Kiss 7:58
10	Green Chimneys 12:27

Barnes & Noble

Roy Haynes has sat in some of the most prestigious drum chairs in jazz over the last 50 years, from Charlie Parker's and Sarah Vaughan's to those of Stan Getz and Pat Metheney. Anyone who has heard him pilot the swinging 1963 version of "My Favorite Things" with John Coltrane has to be impressed with his light, quick, busy style and propulsive rhythms. And that style is amazingly intact on ROY HAYNES TRIO, the 74-year-old's tribute to several of his former colleagues. Along with John Patitucci on bass and Monk-o-phile Danilo Perez on piano, Haynes modernizes a collection of jazz standards, near standards and should-be standards that are heard far too infrequently. Roy recorded Bud Powell's "Wail" in 1949 as an up-tempo workout with Powell, a young Sonny Rollins, and Fats Navarro. Here it's slowed down just enough to let the melody shine through. In contrast to the near-frantic playing of Powell, Perez takes a quirkier approach, always behind the beat and leaving plenty of space between the notes -- every one of which Haynes seems to fill in, giving the trio a dense, tightly woven sound that enlivens the entire disc. Though there is only one flat-out Latin number (Chick Corea's "Folk Song") and two Monk tunes ("Bright Mississippi" and "Green Chimneys"), much of the album can be colored "Thelonious," with occasional south-of-the-border hues. Most drummer-led trio recordings find the leader buried behind the band's frontline "voices." But as good as Danilo Perez is here, ROY HAYNES TRIO is always just that -- a trio record. Haynes is up front with the others throughout, not soloing so much as playing "lead" drums, reacting to, underscoring, and inspiring everything Perez and Patitucci play. Sal D'Agostino

All Music Guide

Roy Haynes has had a long career, and the generically titled The Roy Haynes Trio featuring Danilo Perez and John Patitucci is a long CD, approaching 70 minutes, that attempts to recap that career in the form of new performances and, to a surprising extent, succeeds. The drummer had just turned 74 when this album was released, and had been recording since the 1940s. He took the opportunity of this collection with a new trio, which contained both studio and live recordings, to look back over that period by choosing tunes associated with many of the musicians he had worked with over the years. His tenure in Bud Powell's Modernists septet was recalled in the opening number, Powell's "Wail," which also served the purpose of establishing right off the bat that Haynes was still drumming with his usual power and aggressiveness. Then, Pat Metheny's Spanish-tinged "Question and Answer" harked back only to the late '80s and early '90s and his work with the guitarist. And so it went: Haynes' five-year tenure behind Sarah Vaughan was referenced on "Shulie a Bop," one of her scat numbers, while Miles Davis' "Sippin' at the Bells" and Thelonious Monk's "Bright Mississippi" and "Green Chimneys" reminded listeners of his periods with each. All of this made for a varied collection, but the trio format allowed plenty of room for the individual musicians to play extensively and put their marks on the disparate material. In fact, the effect was to suggest that the history of jazz since World War II, which has been perceived as a series of conflicting trends, actually coheres well. At least, it does when Roy Haynes is behind the drums. William Ruhlmann

Entertainment Weekly

...one of the genuine patriarchs of modern jazz drumming, not only keeps up with his gifted, younger bandmates, but with his fiercely inventive drum work, he prods them on to higher planes of creativity for this vigorous collection of buffed-up bop. Steve Futterman