Phil Haynes: Banging The Drum For Liberty Now

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Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on drummer Phil Haynes.

Since moving to New York from Oregon in 1983, Phil's played on scores of recordings with artists like Anthony Braxton and Dave Liebman. Phil has joined me once already, in the March 2024 epispde Phil Haynes: a Renowned Jazz Drummer Chases the Masters, to discuss his self-published memoir, Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modernist Drumming Artist.

Phil's with me today to discuss his band Free Country, which takes American roots music and runs it through their particular jazz lens, using cello, guitar, bass, and drums to create something called "jazz-grass."

Their new album Liberty Now! (Corner Store Jazz, 2025), did not set out to be political. Phil planned for the group to record original compositions, a departure from their previous work. But then the last US Presidential election happened. And then the band got word of the passing of their trumpeter, Herb Robertson, as they walked into the studio. The music and the plan changed. Phil paired the new recordings with songs from Free Country's catalog into a double album that runs from Revolutionary War tunes to "What a Wonderful World."

Phil's here to talk about grief, protest, making art when the ground shifts under you, and one of my favorite topics: the role of music in addressing contemporary political and social challenges.

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