Roy-Alty

Roy Haynes celebrated his 86th birthday on March 13, 2011. Had the veteran drummer retired from music 30 or 40 years earlier, he still would have gone down in history as someone with a long list of accomplishments. But thankfully, Haynes continued to perform well into his eighties. Recorded in early 2011 (when Haynes was still 85), Roy-Alty is a solid hard bop/post-bop outing that boasts well-known guests like Chick Corea (who is heard on acoustic piano) and trumpeter Roy Hargrove. Corea is featured on two selections: the dusky "All the Bars Are Open" and Thelonious Monk's "Off Minor," while Hargrove is heard on six of the ten tracks (including the insistent "Passion Dance," the standard "These Foolish Things," the Afro-Cuban favorite "Tin Tin Deo," and Miles Davis' "Milestones"). It should be noted that the "Milestones" that Haynes performs on Roy-Alty is the bop standard that Davis played with Charlie "Bird" Parker in 1947, not the modal standard he unveiled in 1958, and playing something with a Bird connection is quite appropriate, given that Haynes was a member of his quintet from 1949-1952 (when the drummer was in his twenties). Most of the songs on Roy-Alty find Haynes employing a group that he bills as the Fountain of Youth (alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, pianist Martin Bejerano, and bassist David Wong), and while the personnel can vary from track to track on this 66-minute CD, the constant is Haynes' skillful drumming. After all these years, Haynes hasn't lost his touch as either a drummer or a group leader, and his skills in both of those areas is evident on Roy-Alty, which falls shorts of essential but is nonetheless a pleasing addition to his catalog.