Roy Haynes Quartet – Out of the Afternoon

Description

Roy Haynes – despite his 80 years still an active drummer and bandleader – can look back upon an extraordinary career. Almost more than any other drummer, he defined the rhythm of modern playing “behind the drums”. A role in the background gave him no satisfaction, so it is no wonder that he has more than 30 LPs to his name.

Perfect recording technique, brilliant arrangements of standard numbers, highly original evergreens, all played by true giants of their respective instruments – what better reasons are there to buy this fantastic LP with its lavish gatefold sleeve?
AllMusic Review by Steven McDonald

Out of the Afternoon is a splendid sounding 1962 set from the Roy Haynes Quartet — which, at the time, consisted of Haynes, Henry Grimes on bass, Tommy Flanagan on piano, and Roland Kirk on saxes, manzello, stritch, and flutes. The album is a delightful mix of techniques in arrangement and performance, with all of the musicians delivering terrific work. Haynes’ drumming is absolutely wonderful here, lightly dancing around the other instruments; Flanagan’s piano playing is equally light and delicate; Grimes’ bass work is outstanding (during “Raoul” you have a chance to hear one of the few bowed bass solos on records of that era); and there’s no more to be said about Kirk’s sax and flute work that hasn’t been said a hundred times, apart from the fact that the flute solos on “Snap Crackle” help this cut emerge as particularly outstanding.

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