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"Phil Haynes is a drummer-bandleader of stature and creative ... brilliance, I think you could say. The entire program hangs together as a series of sonic poems with a sometimes almost-Asian use of space, but also a mastery of new jazz drumming ways and a sense of melodics that comes out of an acute sense of sound colors in alternation. It holds its own impressively as percussion music as much or more so than drum soloing."

~ Gapplegate Music Review

If a Salvador Dali painting
could be heard
If a beam of sunlight in the Ituri forest
could be heard
If a caravan of monks silently praying
could be heard
If love were pages of mere metaphor
and could be heard

Not since hearing Famoudou Don Moye’s Sun Percussion has there been such an introspective and personal solo drum statement of faith as in Phil Haynes "Sanctuary"

~ L.A. Emenari

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Corner Store Jazz prides itself in crafting quality content and sound. Production costs for a Corner Store Jazz record typically run from $1K - 3K for even our simplest concert documents, to as high as $15K+ for multi-day studio projects. CSJ thriftily provides $1.00 - $15.00 downloads to everyone from penny-short students to the most generous collectors, though all may donate larger sums for any item. Additional contributions directly support the equitable pay of artists, engineers, visual artists and designers who help bring fresh projects to life. I thank each of you for being knowledgeably generous whenever purchasing from our jazzy Corner Store, as your funds assist directly in creating exceptional new works. ~ph


According to family lore, I have been regularly creating solo percussion works since I was 18 months old. It was not until nearly 20 years later, while attending Coe College in Iowa, that I confronted face to face the solo music passion of Anthony Braxton, and upon his insistence realized that adding my voice to this most revealing of idioms would eventually become mandatory.

Teaching myself how to create effective improvised solo pieces, faithful to what I could spontaneously produce for live audiences, became a kind of mantra. It was not until my mid-thirties, however, that I felt ready to face “the microphone” and document such personal music for drum-set.

Learning to perform as a solo artists forced me to refine an approach to all of my ensemble improvising and writing. Since this realization, I’ve been on a quest to help bridge the gap between successfully composed modern “classical” works with that of music composed in real time (new music improvisations, jazz, free, etc).

I often marvel at both the independence and strength of J.S. Bach’s fugal part writing. His approach serves to remind me to be more internally consistent in my own development of parts, in all settings, so that they might be interesting in and of themselves. Thinking in such a “Bach-ian” way - frequently after I have intuited my first themes - has helped me to discover both a more consistent and fresh music.

Whenever work by improvisers disappoints me, it is usually due to a lost sense of collective artistic discipline (sufficient self editing), thus presenting ill balanced musical “run-on sentences.” Such stream-of-conscious expression can collapse under its own weight/length when it lacks the quality and clarity of sturdy thematic ideas meshed with well timed and edited formal development. Some of the most exciting material ever conceived, however, comes via such spur of the moment pre/sub concours “ah ha” creations. Bridging such apparent opposites of conscious vs. subconscious creativity is a perennial challenge for every artist.

“Legit/classical” percussion writing can fall short too, especially when it relegates percussionists to that of mere sound effects generators - or worse yet, un-imaginative, poorly orchestrated and non-lyrical “drummer parts”. I’ve attempted to reshape our role in all situations as more than just a time keeper, colorist and percussive engine — striving toward a style that also suggests melody, counterpoint, harmony, and compositional relevance— seeking to contribute to my instrument’s evolution.

Hence, my answer to the puzzle of developing a progressive solo concert approach seems simple enough: improvise first theme(s) spontaneously; develop the ideas generously while adopting one of the earliest exit points for each movement; group these contrasting movements into larger multi sectional works during performances via experienced intuition; allow significant pause to provide sounds with their natural decay- creating appropriate space before beginning another movement or introduce a new compositional sequence.

In order to capture the magic of good live concerts, I decided to record Sanctuary in complete hour-long non-stop sets, at the invitation of SFB Radio, Berlin. Over a two day period, we documented four of my concert sets for potential air-play (3 were suitable for release), then I selected movements from each of these sets to craft this 5th Set for CD publications.

Final musical preparation for the session took place in the cellar of Gebhard Ullman’s apartment complex in the Kreuzberg Neighbored of Berlin. Often so soft and unusual were my sound sculptures, as I attempted not to be heard by anyone, that neighbors periodically would venture downstairs searching for unknown phantoms, yet never quite being able to localize or identify them in the large, resonant , and partitioned basement. The closer they crept, the softer and more sparse I became, leaving the befuddled tenants searching in vain for their suspected ghostly vermin (?). Practice of such intimate soundscapes sharpened my ability to consistently communicate the universe of percussion music that is frequently too soft for practical live representation - yet ideally sited for the sensitive acoustics of SFB’s massive, distinctive and live room that was originally built in the 1920s for recording the Berlin Philharmonic.

All said, I hope that my personal “Zen meets West” approach to solo music might awaken a new appreciation for the vast language(s) orchestral color, and formal development available to improvising artists - as well as more traditional composers — able to utilize the “new percussion.” Do enjoy your tour of my sanctuary. -Phil Haynes


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Special thanks : SFB studio engineer Ekkehard Stoffregen, recording supervisor/producer, Wolfgang Hoff, and especially Gebhard Ullmann, who introduced us all to each other’s work, resulting in these recordings ;

+principal drumming influences “Papa” Joe Jones, Buddy Rich, “Philly” Joe Jones, Ed Blackwell, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, David Garibaldi and Steve Lawrence, my seminal Oregon Symphony percussion mentor;

+Wayne Mercer, longtime Oregon Symphony section leader who helped me select my first kit (a 1940’s WFL, 4pc set covered in sparkle blue spray paint w/UFIP cymbals!); first inspired drum set teacher, Rick O’Connell, during his studies at Pacific University in the early 1970’s; Portland, Oregon guitarist, Steve Blackman, who introduced me to “real jazz” and many professional small group experiences;

+Coe college mentor, kindred spirit and longtime co-conspirator, Paul Smoker; guitarist John Stowell. Precious days spent with both Ed Blackwell and Jack DeJohnette before moving to New York;

+Teachers Richard Hervig, Don Thompson, Lee Konitz, David Liebman, Johanne Brackeen, Dave Holland and Anthony Braxton;

+New York life with Joe Daley, Drew Gress, Herb Robertson, Ellery Eskelin, Frank Lacy, Andy Laster, Mark Feldman, Ben Monder, Micu Narunsky, Michael Jefry Stevens, and Kenji Yastake;

+sound engineers Rudy Van Gelder, David Baker, Jim Anders, Allan Tucker and Jon Rosenberg;

+Composers J.S. Bach, Gustav Mahler, Maurice Ravel, Charles Ives, Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Carl Ruggles, Aaron Copeland; Bela Barktok, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gyorgi Ligetti, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Kenny wheeler

+life friends Ryan Holznagel, Stephen Blackmann, Jim Yanda, Owen Howard and Chrstian Kvech;

+stellar family members Harold, Gladys, James and Mary Beth Haynes; Martha Batchelor; Dee Ann Casteel, Kathy Casteel, and the countless others who have touched my life.