Haines has played across the globe, from China to the Czech Republic. He’s conducted at Lincoln Center and performed at Lenox Lounge. And he’s brought UNCG’s Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program to a high spot. Up to 90 students audition each year. The chosen six to eight receive intensive mentoring.
He knows how inspiring moments can take students to another level. A jazz track on a friend’s mixtape is what first hooked him, in high school. Oscar Peterson’s “The Honeydripper.”
“I just played along. I could not stop dancing.” A year later, he sat in with the Duke Ellington rhythm section. Another inspiration.
Now he’s a composer and a teacher. “My main identity is as a performer.”
In 2012, that nearly ended.
Haines had a tumor in his right shoulder. After the mass was removed, he could barely move his arm. He thought he’d have to change careers, but a specialist believed he could transplant a key nerve in Haines’ arm. Several months after that surgery, he started playing again. A thousand hours of practice brought him back.
The bass felt beautiful. “I fell in love with it again.”
Artistically, he was transformed. “I learned less is more. The sound of one long note is more beautiful than I had known before.”
His next two projects are a Tom Waits big band-type album and a swinging holiday album with UNCG jazz pianist Ariel Pocock.
A musician’s life is improvisation, he explains. There are always new ways to approach those four strings.
