FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2006

 The Recording Academy announced today that Roy Haynes earned a Grammy nomination for his blistering drum solo, "Hippidy Hop" from the live album, 'Whereas' released on Dreyfus Jazz on August 22, 2006.  This is Roy's third Grammy nod on Dreyfus (and his second co-produced with Dreyfus US Label Manager Doug Yoel)—2001's 'Birds of a Feather' and 2004's 'Fountain of Youth' were both nominated in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.

 'Whereas' was recorded at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul, Minnesota, over the weekend of January 20 – 22, 2006, which Chris Coleman, Mayor of St. Paul, MN, officially proclaimed as the "Roy Haynes Weekend".  The recording documents the no-holds-barred interaction of his Fountain of Youth band, featuring Jaleel Shaw on alto sax, Robert Rodriguez on piano and John Sullivan on bass, and the unstoppable octogenarian. 

 Roy Haynes first came on the scene at a pivotal time in jazz history, when the Swing Era was drawing to a close and bebop was still being born.  "I'm one of the last innovators from the '40s who's still out there saying something new," Haynes has said.  Over the decades he has performed and recorded with everyone from Charlie Parker to Pat Metheny, from Lester Young and Sarah Vaughan to Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Chick Corea and Branford Marsalis.  Recently, he has even performed with the current incarnation of the Allman Brothers Band—at their annual Beacon Theatre run in New York City in March; and at the Jones Beach Music Theater on Long Island in June. 

 Not only has Haynes seen the full sweep of jazz history, he's played a huge role in shaping it.  And he continues to do so, not least of all by nurturing so many of today's most promising young musicians.  In celebration of Roy's musical life, in Spring of 2007, Dreyfus Jazz will release a career-spanning boxed set, featuring highlights from the drummer's recordings as a leader and as a sideman with major figures in jazz music.