Roy Haynes Smithsonian Interview Block 670 (Q6343)

At one point when I had left <span class="fullMatch" id="match_484">Sarah Vaughan</span>, I had called up John Coltrane. We're in the '60s. I think we're still in the '60s. Or late '58, '59. I was doing stuff at the Five Spot on Tuesdays - Tuesday nights or something like that. I wanted to get John Coltrane for something, and I had called John Coltrane to get him to play with me. I think he was getting work done on his teeth or something then. He said, "I got a guy who's badder than me. " I think those were his words. Said, "I'll let you talk to him. His name is Wayne Shorter. He just got out of the service. " Wayne Shorter used to call me. I remember sitting on my steps - not these steps, but my other house in Queens - which lead to the basement, talking to Wayne Shorter on the phone. He was telling me about these compositions he had written. He wanted to play with me. If I was the type of guy - say maybe Bu [Art Blakey], for example, the way he'd grab up guys quick. That's why I got Wayne Shorter. Because <span class="partialMatch" rel="popover" id="partial_2424_354">Wayne Shorter</span> always then - before he went with Bu, before he went with Miles - he had talked to me on the phone, because John Coltrane had told me about him. He was at John Coltrane's house. If I do remember correctly, that was it. Then he gave me his number. He lived in Jersey then. Then later on I got Wayne Shorter to make some stuff with me. I would just - we're playing at Slugs - I would just go into a rhythm and Wayne Shorter had one of his own compositions, or he used to do a lot of stuff from Black Orpheus there. He would put a song right in. It would sound like we had arranged or we had rehearsed. He was very melodic. That's how that come about. He was there with me for a while. I had one time with Chick Corea there, Joe Henderson.