This pianist was off and running, as in up and down the keyboard, when others his age were still busy running around playing. He started playing music before he was 10, and as a teenager, Cyril Haynes was active with several other prodigious young talents from his neighborhood including the great trumpeter Charlie Shavers. Haynes' older brother, Ronald Haynes, had served as an inspiration, with formal training from Columbia University certainly providing him with a suitable background for the assignments he took on during his long career. Haynes recorded regularly from the '30s through the '60s but after this, mostly played live, including a regular series of solo piano shows at New York City venues during the late '70s.