I’d never heard of Roy Haynes before but I’m glad I did. I’m streaming the Stan Getz quartet live at Birdland with Haynes on drums.
Isn’t it the drummer’s job to keep the beat tight regardless of whether he’s the leader or not?
Of course, a sideman drummer who couldn’t keep time would soon be fired by the horn or piano-playing bandleader.
(Don’t bring up the possibility of band leading bass players. It’s a science fact that bass players only take up the instrument because they lack leadership abilities altogether)
(And of course guitar players always ASSUME they are the bandleader, whether it’s true or not)
That’s why I wish I’d saved the article or at least wrote down where I read it. But at least it’s been great discovering new (to me) music.
Currently, Brian Blade has his Fellowship Band
If Ginger were alive he’d probably punch you in the nose! 
Even Eric has come around to admitting that Cream was a jazz trio.
“I am not a rock drummer,” Baker barks at Michael Hann of the Guardian, in an interview that can only be described as contentious. “I’ve never been a rock drummer. Cream wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll. No way in a million years was Cream rock ‘n’ roll. Nor was Blind Faith,” he adds before rattling off a number of other collaborations over the years.
“Where did they get the rock drummer bit from?” Ginger Baker asks, both dismissively and rhetorically. “I’m not a rock drummer. I’m a musician who plays music.”
Charles Mingus and Charlie Haden are rolling over in their graves. Christian McBride is thinking the grave might be a better place than this cold, unmusical world.
He is wrong.