Roy Haynes Swings Into the Seventies
Haynes proves here that a drummer can lead a date without it feeling like an ego trip.
By 1971, Roy Haynes had been around long enough to have played with Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Sarah Vaughan, and he still sounded like he had something to prove. Hip Ensemble (1971) is a good example of where jazz drumming was heading in the early seventies — away from the purely acoustic post-bop template and toward something with a little more funk and electricity in it. Haynes was never going to be a rock drummer, but he was absolutely willing to absorb what was happening around him and put it through his own filter. The result is a record that feels genuinely of its moment without sounding desperate to be hip.
The band Haynes assembled here is tight and responsive. There is a looseness to the grooves that keeps things from feeling stiff, and Haynes himself plays with the kind of economical authority you would expect from someone with his track record. He is not overwhelming the music to remind you he is the leader. The ensemble playing is the point, as the title suggests, and the record rewards that approach. Some tracks lean harder into funk-influenced territory, which was a reasonable move for a jazz musician trying to stay relevant and genuinely interested in the music coming out of that era.
This is not the album you would hand someone to explain why Roy Haynes matters — for that, you would probably reach for his earlier work with Coltrane or his own Out of the Afternoon (1962). But Hip Ensemble is a solid, enjoyable record that shows a veteran musician engaging honestly with his present rather than coasting on a reputation. If you already know Haynes, it fills in a part of his story worth knowing.
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