Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie

Saxophonist Charlie Haynes Exhibits Explosive Musical Excellence For Chico Area Jazz Lovers

Saxophonist Charlie Haynes, above, belts out a solo during his recent

tenure playing with The Skyliners, an explosive 18-piece big band based

in Chico, CA. In addition to being a much-in-demand instrumentalist,

Haynes is a composer, author, producer, teacher, and recording artist

with six solo CDs to his credit.

by

Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

   Charlie Haynes is a mother.

That's a term of endearment among musicians for someone who passionately lives a life of, by and for jazz. And for the swinging saxophonist with the monster chops from Chico, CA, jazz is life  -  his life, he said.

"It's all about the idea of exploration, of discovery, of affirmation, of confirmation," said Haynes, 55, via telephone from his home. "It's what helps to make life so interesting and exciting."

Such exhilaration that Haynes has for the music percolates in him like a bubbly brew and translates into some explosive performances whether he's recording his own CDs or playing tenor sax with a jet-propulsion big band or playing with an all-star jazz combo at a local pub or playing "light" jazz on clarinet or flute with a duo or trio for diners at classy area bistros.

But Haynes is not your average run-of-the-mill weekend jazz warrior. The passion he has for the music runs deep and it comes out at the end of his horn.

"The stuff that moves me are (soprano saxist) Sidney Bechet, (trumpeter) Miles Davis, (tenor saxophonist) John Coltrane, and (jazz singer) Billie Holiday," Haynes said. "They are totally exposed like they are naked. I try to emulate in my own playing the fire that burned in these musicians." 

And what listeners come away with from every Haynes performance are not only "Whew!" and "Wow!," but the discovery that this guy really knows what he is talking about.

In addition to being a dynamic woodwind instrumentalist, Haynes also wears the hats of composer, recording artist, producer, author and teacher.

He is one of a select few musician-scholars these days that can not only present the history and theory behind America's only true musical art form, but he can deliver the goods as well.

Referring to himself as an Army "brat," Haynes was born on July 26, 1949, in Ft. Lewis, WA. His father was a career Army soldier who was stationed in Austria during the first few years following the end of World War II, and his mother, an Austrian native from Salzburg, was a teacher who spoke five languages.

"Most people think World War II ended in 1945, but for the Austrian nation, it ended in 1955," Haynes said. "During those ten years the country was occupied by the Americans, English, French and Russians. The Russians by far were the worst."

Haynes' father, who abstained from drinking alcohol all his life, chauffeured all the top military officers and political dignitaries around Salzburg and was the personal driver for the commanding general, Haynes said.

"My dad turned out to be the Number One driver of choice for the occupation troops in Salzburg," Haynes said. "My mother returned to Salzburg after the Nazis were defeated to work as a translator and guide."

Haynes' parents met in 1947 while his father drove military brass around and his mother sat next to him in the front seat of the jeep as translator and tour guide. Romance soon bloomed and the couple married the following year.

In early 1949, Haynes' father was transferred stateside to Ft. Lewis, bringing with him a pregnant wife.

After Haynes was born, his mother enrolled at UCLA in Los Angeles to pursue doctorate studies, taking her young son with her. Haynes' father continued his tours of duty at various places.

"My upbringing was sort of at a distance from the military and very up close Austrian-European," Haynes said.

Both of Haynes' parents were musical. His mother played the zephyr, violin and guitar. His father played piano "whenever he felt that no one was watching," Haynes said.

Haynes' first exposure to music came from whatever his parents where listening to, he said.

"Dad had hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes of almost every music imaginable," Haynes said. "Mom listened to classical music in all languages. When I was in high school my mother took Russian because she wanted to learn another language."

Other early childhood exposures to music included listening to classical music that was broadcast over the  radio from Sacramento  -  an encouragement from a lay teacher at the Notre Dame Catholic School in Chico where the young Haynes attended  -  and from watching television.

"Some of the musical scores from television caught my ear at that time such as the dominant chords on the show, Sea Hunt, and the things Henry Mancini was doing," Haynes recalled.

Haynes' trek as a musician took flight at age 11 when he began singing opera, he said.

"I had a soprano voice," he said.

Two years later, the clarinet became the new focus of Haynes' interest. He became proficient so quickly on the instrument that he won a musical competition and joined the Young People's Symphony where he played a concerto at Laxson Auditorium (on the campus of California State University, Chico)  - all at age thirteen!

Haynes continued to play clarinet throughout high school and was put in charge of the school's Pep Band because he could "read anything and play anything" that was put in front of him, he said.

His introduction to the saxophone came during his senior year at Chico High School. The school's band director, Don Mattson, approached Haynes to take up the sax because there was a shortage of sax players in the school's jazz band. Haynes agreed to make the switch and it became evident very quickly that the young musical prodigy and the saxophone were going to become close friends.

"When I found out the saxophone was easier to play than the clarinet, I thought to myself, 'Whoa! Roll over, Beethoven, this is it!,'" Haynes said. "I sold my clarinet and got a C-melody sax from a local resale store because it was the cheapest horn available."

Haynes' interest in jazz was piqued further when a friend of his gave him jazz records to listen. Two in particular, Pete Fountain Meets Al Hirt and Count Basie Meets Duke Ellington, made an indelible impression on the teen fledging saxophonist.

"There was some swinging stuff on the Pete Fountain record," Haynes recalled. "(Tenor saxophonist) Eddie Miller and (drummer) Ray Bauduc were also on the record. I was so taken by the music on that Count Basie-Duke Ellington record that I would do my homework to it."

During the mid-1960s, the jazz scene in Chico's downtown area was blossoming, and one could hear jazz played almost every night of the week at any of the local clubs. Haynes felt drawn to the music scene there  -  ever watching, listening and learning from those who made the music.

"I remember being taken back by the playing of trumpeter Craig Strode, who led the King Cotton Jazz Band, and still does today," Haynes said. "He was playing at the Silver Club here in town. I thought it was neat. Craig is a real trooper, very dedicated. That was instruction for me in terms of what music can do and how it can affect people and how exciting it could be when someone was doing it.""

Haynes soon began gigging around locally playing at various parties, he said.

"I played a Stan Getz version of Over The Rainbow at this one party and people stopped talking and started listening," Haynes said. "Wow! Then I was asked to play more of that music later on at our graduation party."

Although a popular student, Haynes felt most  comfortable when he was in the company of his high school musician friends, he said.

"There was a camaraderie among the band members than there were with the students at large," Haynes said. "I liked the feel of that group and I stayed after school with them instead of going out for track or football. I was too busy studying having a good time learning." 

Charlie Haynes, right, plays clarinet, while Charlie Robinson, left, accompanies him on guitar during a

recent gig at the outside courtyard at the 5th Street Steakhouse in Chico, CA.

But he did find enough and interest to be on the school's tennis team, he said.

It was also during this time that Haynes' inquisitiveness to look deeper into music was formulated.

"I began looking at forms of music," he said. "I wanted to try to figure out the connection between them."

After graduating from high school in 1966, Haynes matriculated to California State University, Chico, where he surprisingly majored not in music, but in pre-med studies. He later changed his major to humanities because he "wanted to get more into literature and films," he said.

"I wanted to get away from the microscopes and more into life," he said with a laugh. "The Vietnam war protests were going on at the time as well as the civil rights movement which rocked me out of my comfort nest. I felt a call for something more meaningful."

During his sophomore year in college, Haynes married at age 19 but later divorced at age 21.

He was also playing sax in a rock 'n roll band called "Sundance," which played at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Also in the band was local bassist Randy Reeve, who continues to play with the King Cotton Jazz Band and Cottonwood, a County group.

After graduating from Chico State, Haynes took seven years off before pursuing post-graduate studies towards a Master's degree. During that seven-year hiatus, Haynes traveled abroad to Sierra Leone, Africa, to study the holistic music of various African tribes before becoming involved in various jazz and classical groups here in the States.

Haynes began his trek in Los Angeles, living there for almost a year. He worked nights parking cars at the Park Sunset Plaza Hotel in Hollywood where he met a lot of celebrities as well as underworld figures, he said.

"I met Esther Phillips and Sherman Thomas, who produced the record, Aretha Franklin At The Fillmore," Haynes said. "There were also a bunch of A&R people, musicians, crooks, prostitutes."

It was during this period that Haynes stumbled across something that caught his ear which eventually began his life-long quest in music. He explained:

"One night I was listening to an Ella Fitzgerald album, Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie. Two songs on the album, A Night In Tunisia and Good Morning, Heartache, had a certain sound to them. It bugged the heck out of me. I figured it had to be a minor 9th or a major 7th chord. It kept me up all night! I heard it but I didn't know what she was doing. I wrote out every scale and chord I could think of. I had to find out what that sound was! From that point on, it made me conscious that I better get some books and start looking at somebody else's stuff. I went through over thirty-five books on music that tried to explain the vocabulary of music. There was a 'system' going on in music that I could feel, but I hadn't a clue as to what it was. If I could only find it out, I'd be a happy man! I'm still working on it today."

Having such an astute ear for music may be looked upon by some as a blessing. and by others as a curse. But for Haynes, his analysis never detracts from the enjoyment music gives, he said.

"There's two ways to listen to music  -  one is analytically, the other is for enjoyment," Haynes said. "The questions I ask myself while listening to music is the musician creating a story? Is the musician creating a picture or certain color? Is there a sense of efficiency? I'm attracted to music first and foremost by the thoughtfulness that goes into presenting it. Classical music gives a person a certain appreciation for elegance and craftsmanship. I tend to listen to music that comes up to those standards. Jazz generally meets those standards, as does Gospel, a lot of Soul music, and some Latin stuff because there's something interesting, something different going on. It's new."

One of the things that Haynes discovered during his stay in Los Angeles was that neo-classical composer Igor Stravinsky knew about modern harmonics way back in 1911.

"It's like a treasure trove of voicings, harmony, all kinds of substitutions," Haynes said. "It's that kind of quest which began that night listening to that Ella record."

Haynes tried to collate the resources that were available out of the many of the books on music theory that he studied, but those books were very confusing, he said.

"I picked up some things here and there and I kept a journal of what I discovered in terms of melodies, something that would open me up," Haynes said. "It was like a diary as to what my brain was willing to accept as good music."

Out of that journal Haynes was able to form his Master's thesis.

"It's a fine-tuned version of the long journal pages," he said. "Out of that journal came a lot of exercises and examples."

 Haynes showed some of his more learned musical friends his journal and they were impressed by what insights were contained on the pages. They told him if he could organize the material in that journal, he could probably teach a college-level class for post-graduate credit.

'That got me interested in teaching," Haynes said. "By taking some courses with some of the music teachers who were hip as to what I was trying to do, I ended up teaching before I went to get my Master's."

Haynes taught at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in the early 1980s while gigging around the Big Apple. He rubbed shoulders with trumpeter Jamie Finegan, the son of Bill Finegan, who worked as an arranger for Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and who co-led a band in the early 1950s with Eddie Sauter, another brilliant arranger; and Smooth Jazz soprano saxophonist Marion Meadows.

After spending ten years in New York, Haynes got out of the rat race of big city life and relocated to nearby Connecticut where he could further develop his "professional preparation," he said.

"I don't miss New York," Haynes said. "I was in New York when John Lennon got killed. New Yorkers don't care. I got mugged, and my apartment was broken into. That's why I moved to Connecticut."

Suburban Connecticut proved to be the ideal location for Haynes. It was a large enough place to meet his professional needs while being less than an hour's train ride from New York City.

During his nine-year stay in Connecticut, Haynes taught publicly and privately while being a formidable jazz player locally. He also produced the Bridgeport Jazz Festival at Sea Side Park.

He also authored and published three books on jazz: The Jazz Workshop, a hands-on practice book looking at the inside of 20th century tonality; Jazz Concordance, a dictionary explaining resources of tonality in Western music; and Jazz Annotations, about jazz history.

In 1998, Haynes married Dr. Christa Seybolt, an Austrian native whose expertise is in nutrition and holistic health. She currently teaches courses through Butte Community College. During that same year, Haynes' mother died, which prompted the gifted musician to return to Chico to live.

"At this stage of my life, living in Chico gives me a chance to take stock," Haynes said. "It gives me a chance to prepare and to explore to teach jazz music and world music."

Since returning to Chico, Haynes immediately jumped into the local music scene, playing at some of  Chico's finest venues. He's become somewhat of a permanent fixture leading a variety of small combos on weekends at the 5th Street Steakhouse and during select weeknights at the Black Crow Restaurant. He's performed with The Skyliners Big Band, the Chico State Jazz X-Press, as well as other area big bands.

He's recorded and produced six solo CDs on his own Visionwind Music label: Loveship Project: So Many Voices; Paris-Rio Express with vocalist Nicole Pasternak; Duo + One: Live At The 5th Street Steakhouse, with Chico guitarist Charlie Robinson and drummer Rick Gibson; Charles Haynes Quintet + One: Live At The Redwood Forest, with saxophonists Greg D'Augelli and Mike Newman, guitarist Charlie Robinson and drummer Lewis Langworthy; Jazz On A New Year's Day, with Sam Ahia, acoustic guitar; and Haynes' current release, Tenor Gladness, with Mike Newman, tenor sax. (See Charlie Haynes CD)

Charlie Haynes, right, poses with saxophone great, Lew Tabackin, outside of Laxson

Auditorium on the campus of California State University, Chico, last March.

Haynes also teaches Jazz History at Butte Community College.

"Jazz has a personality like a child growing up," Haynes said of the "red thread" he teaches that runs throughout his jazz history class. "There's adolescence, then adulthood. It's a coming of age where jazz grows up, like the human evolution. It's a search for artistry in a certain time."

Starting in January, Haynes will also be teaching World Music at Butte College.

Ever the perennial instructor, Haynes also has over a half dozen students who study with him privately. Some of his current and former students include nineteen-year-old alto saxophonist Adam Johanson of Chico. A sophomore at California State University, Chico, Johanson has been studying privately with Haynes for over two years.

"Studying with Charlie helped me to see more clearly so many things that can be done improvisationally  to a jazz chart," Johanson said. "I really didn't fully appreciate or understand the mechanics of jazz music until I began studying with him."

Nineteen-year-old pianist Graham Johnson, who studied with Haynes for over two years, and who has gigged around Chico coffee houses with his father and who composes, records and produces his own music, is currently a freshman at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He credits Haynes with helping him to understand music theory.

"If you know the theory, there's so many different ways you can take music within the tonal tradition," Johnson said. "Charlie has been a huge inspiration in that way."

Charlie Haynes with his Annie Award, presented to him in June by the

fine arts community in Chico for his lifetime achievement in music.

If that is not enough to keep Haynes busy, he also finds time to be on the local airwaves. He can be heard on Chico radio KZFR on the Facets Of Jazz show on Tuesday mornings and Tropical Dance, a world music program, on alternate Wednesday afternoons. He also hosts a jazz show once a month on Thursday evenings on KZHO, 91.7 FM.

In June, the fine arts community in Chico presented Haynes with its Annie Award, saluting his lifetime achievement in musical excellence.

As a treasure to the musical community in Chico, Haynes will continue exhibiting musical excellence whether it be in the classroom, in books, in the recording studio, on radio or on stage for a long time to come. His is a valuable contribution to jazz in the area that must be continually recognized and celebrated.

"The artist enjoys the support of the community," Haynes said. "If you can teach, you should. It keeps Coltrane alive. If someone comes to me and asks me to break something down to them, I will. That's how I can make a meaningful contribution to jazz on a personal level. What's so nice about Chico that I never got while I lived in Brooklyn, is that I get to see the same people over and over coming to gigs. That gives me more responsibility to be as good as my gig."

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