What happens when the rhythm of you, and in you, is at a bursting point and always needs to find a way out, a way to swing and groove? What happens when that rhythm sets up a steadiness of “in the pocket,” with a little slyness and tease?
You’d be everything Roy Haynes, that’s what. Crisp, articulate, purposed, and with a manner all his own.
About his style, these are some of his own words about inspiration and the “where some of it comes from” of his artistry: “I tried to listen to everybody. I didn’t try to do what everyone else had done, but I listened. My ears were always open.”
The musician’s story and creative spirit is an ever-and-ever kind of thing. Age is inevitable. It is a sometimes merciless conqueror of energy and mood, and life spirit, but if these other sage words of Haynes don’t say a lot of it all, I do not know what does: “Maybe the secret of staying youthful is playing the drums. I know that performing makes me feel good, and it also makes me sleep well.”
The pocket is more than just a richness of a Haynes way of playing drums and setting the groove — it is a way of playing life’s grooves.