Two of the jazz world’s most enduring pioneers have died after prolific and widely influential careers. Acclaimed saxophonist Lou Donaldson died on Saturday, Nov. 9 at age 98. On Tuesday, Donaldson’s friend and fellow jazz great, drummer Roy Haynes, died at 99. No cause of death was given for either musician.
Born in Badin, N.C., in 1926, Donaldson attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and served in World War II before becoming part of the post-war bebop scene of the late ’40s and ’50s. Inspired by Charlie Parker to abandon the clarinet in favor of the alto saxophone, Donaldson would come to be considered one of the greatest in the genre, despite reportedly also having severe asthma. During his decades-long career, he performed and recorded with jazz icons Thelonious Monk, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith, Horace Silver, George Benson and more. He also released dozens of albums as a bandleader, including the popular LPs “Alligator Bogaloo,” “Lou Donaldson at His Best” and “Wailing With Lou.” His last release was the 1992 album “Birdseed,” released by the Lou Donaldson Quintet.
“Jazz has to hit a certain spot,” Donaldson explained in his autobiography, according to the New York Times. “There’s a groove that you’ve got to hit, and if you play enough music around musicians and play a lot in front of the people, you’ll learn where it is.”
Donaldson’s “warm, fluid style,” as described by the Associated Press, blended elements of blues, pop and soul. With a musical influence that reached beyond the jazz world, his compositions and performances were sampled by hip-hop artists like Kanye West, Pete Rock, Nas and De La Soul. In 2022, a boulevard in his native Badin was renamed for the saxophonist. Donaldson died in Daytona Beach, Fla.; while he was known to have fathered two daughters, further information on his survivors was not immediately available.
In 2013, Donaldson was named a “Jazz Master” by the National Endowment of the Arts, and renowned drummer Roy Haynes was on hand to support and celebrate a fellow jazz great. Just over a decade later, Haynes died just a few days after his friend on Tuesday in Long Island, N.Y., after a brief illness, as confirmed by his daughter, Leslie Haynes-Gilmore, to the Times and The Washington Post.
A first-generation Barbadian-American born in Boston in 1925, Haynes reportedly began drumming in local nightclubs as a teenager. Relocating to New York City in 1945, Haynes’ style became “characterized by crispness and finesse,” becoming known by the moniker “Snap Crackle,” according to the Percussive Arts Society (PAS).
As noted by USA Today, Haynes’ distinctive style made him an in-demand percussionist for marquee talents like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Max Roach, Charles Mingus and Lester Young, among others. Despite his common association with the bebop sound, Haynes eschewed categorization, infusing his work with other musical styles and telling PAS in a 1998 interview, “I’m not always comfortable with those labels that people use. I’m just an old-time drummer who tries to play with feeling.”
In his nearly seven-decade career, Haynes earned two Grammy Awards; the first for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group in 1989 for his album “Blues for Coltrane — A Tribute to John Coltrane” and in 2000 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for the album “Like Minds.” Like Donaldson, Haynes had a prolific recording career, releasing his final album, “Roy-Alty,” in 2011.
In addition to his daughter, Haynes is survived by his sons, fellow drummer Craig Holiday Haynes and cornetist Graham Haynes, eight grandchildren, including drummer Marcus Gilmore, and seven great-grandchildren.