JAZZ Haynes' new project: Fountain of Youth

The 80-year-old's band plays the music of the legends.
By TED PANKEN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- "Years ago, I said I was in semi-retirement," says drummer Roy Haynes, who turned 80 on March 11. "Now I work, then I cool out and think and dream and go throughout the world."
Haynes calls his latest group the Fountain of Youth Quartet. The combined ages of the sidemen do not equal 80.
Featuring music associated with jazz icons Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny -- Haynes played with them all -- the quartet is hard-pressed to match their leader's energy and imagination.
"During the '40s, [drummer] Denzil Best told me, 'Play like it's your last time ever,'" Haynes says.
Haynes arrived from Boston in 1945 with an invitation to join bandleader Luis Russell at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.
"Just to come to New York was like going to heaven," Haynes recalls. He settled in at 526 W. 149th St., two blocks north of Miles Davis, then a Juilliard student, and four blocks south of tenor sax king Coleman Hawkins.
& quot;The neighborhood was beautiful," he says. "I still drive by periodically to look at the brownstone where I lived."
On such occasions, the vehicle is likely to be fast -- Haynes drives a vintage Bricklin, a Magnum and a Benz coupe. He houses them in the garage of his Long Island home.
Speed, elegance and precision characterize the Haynes attack.
Influential style
"I tap-dance on the drums," he says. His concept of designing the rhythm across the entire drum set, implying the beat instead of directly stating it, influenced the innovations of such drummers as Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, and current players Jeff Watts and Bill Stewart.
"Roy Haynes encompasses the entire continuum of drum style and language," says drummer Lewis Nash. "He's daring. He's soulful. His imagination seems boundless, and you can hear wit and sarcasm in his playing, the kind of adjectives you'd use for someone who's a writer or poet."
These days, Haynes seems determined to make a joyful noise at every opportunity.
"Years ago, when I played with all those people, I didn't do everything I was capable of, because it wouldn't fit," he says.
"Now I do anything and everything that comes to mind, and place it where it means something. I stretch the beat, take it fast and slow and hot and cold, and there aren't always measures to count. The guys in my band are up for it."