Mickey Roker
Encyclopedia
Granville "Mickey" Roker (born March 9, 1932) is an American
jazz drummer
. Roker was born into extreme poverty in Miami
to Granville (Sr.) and Willie Mae Roker. After his mother died (his father never lived with them), when he was only ten, he was taken by his grandmother to live in Philadelphia
with his uncle Walter, who gave him his first drum kit
and communicated his love of jazz
to his nephew. He also introduced the young Roker to the lively jazz scene in Philadelphia, where the great Philly Joe Jones
became Roker's idol.
Roker learned quickly, and he never stopped playing. In the early 1950s he started to gain recognition as a sensitive and yet hard-driving big-band
drummer. Especially favored by Dizzy Gillespie
, Roker was soon in demand for his supportive skills in both big-band and small-group settings.
Still active on the Philadelphia scene in the 21st century, Roker has recorded with Gillespie, Sonny Rollins
, Duke Pearson
, Tommy Flanagan
, Ella Fitzgerald
, Zoot Sims
, Horace Silver
, Junior Mance
, Sarah Vaughan
, Milt Jackson
, Herbie Hancock
, Phil Woods
, Oscar Peterson
, Ray Brown
, Bucky Pizzarelli
, Stanley Turrentine
, Toshiko Akiyoshi
, Hank Jones
, Bobby Hutcherson
, Joe Locke
, and a seemingly endless list of other jazz greats.
With Sonny Rollins
With Blue Mitchell
With Frank Foster
With Horace Silver
With Milt Jackson
With Stanley Turrentine
With Lee Morgan
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz drummer
Jazz drumming
Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz-rock fusion and 1980s-era latin jazz...
. Roker was born into extreme poverty in Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
to Granville (Sr.) and Willie Mae Roker. After his mother died (his father never lived with them), when he was only ten, he was taken by his grandmother to live in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
with his uncle Walter, who gave him his first drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and communicated his love of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
to his nephew. He also introduced the young Roker to the lively jazz scene in Philadelphia, where the great Philly Joe Jones
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo Jones...
became Roker's idol.
Roker learned quickly, and he never stopped playing. In the early 1950s he started to gain recognition as a sensitive and yet hard-driving big-band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
drummer. Especially favored by Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Roker was soon in demand for his supportive skills in both big-band and small-group settings.
Still active on the Philadelphia scene in the 21st century, Roker has recorded with Gillespie, Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
, Duke Pearson
Duke Pearson
Duke Pearson was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic notes him as being a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a producer."-History:...
, Tommy Flanagan
Tommy Flanagan
Thomas Lee Flanagan was an American jazz pianist born in Detroit, Michigan, particularly remembered for his work with Ella Fitzgerald...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Zoot Sims
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...
, Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
, Junior Mance
Junior Mance
Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
, Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
, Bucky Pizzarelli
Bucky Pizzarelli
John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in...
, Stanley Turrentine
Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
, Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi
is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...
, Hank Jones
Hank Jones
Henry "Hank" Jones was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Joe Locke
Joe Locke
Joseph Paul Locke is a US American jazz vibraphonist, composer, recording artist and educator.-Biography:Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York...
, and a seemingly endless list of other jazz greats.
As sideman
With Duke PearsonDuke Pearson
Duke Pearson was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic notes him as being a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a producer."-History:...
- Wahoo!Wahoo!Wahoo! is an album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson, featuring performances recorded in 1964 and released on the Blue Note label in 1965.-Reception:...
(1964) - HoneybunsHoneybunsHoneybuns is the seventh album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring performances by Pearson's nonet recorded in 1965 and released on the Atlantic label in 1966.-Reception:...
(1965) - Prairie DogPrairie Dog (album)Prairie Dog is the eighth album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson, and his second for the Atlantic label, recorded in 1966.-Reception:...
(1966) - Sweet Honey BeeSweet Honey BeeSweet Honey Bee is an album by the American jazz pianist and composer Duke Pearson, that was released on the Blue Note label in 1967.-Reception:...
(1966) - Introducing Duke Pearson's Big BandIntroducing Duke Pearson's Big BandIntroducing Duke Pearson's Big Band is the eleventh album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring big band performances recorded in 1967 and released on the Blue Note label...
(1967) - The PhantomThe Phantom (album)The Right Touch is the twelfth album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring performances recorded in 1968 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
(1968) - Now Hear ThisNow Hear This (Duke Pearson album)Now Hear This is the thirteenth album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson. It features big band performances recorded in 1968 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
(1968) - How InsensitiveHow Insensitive (album)How Insensitive is the fourteenth album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring performances by Pearson's band augmented by a choir, recorded over three sessions in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
(1969) - It Could Only Happen with YouIt Could Only Happen with YouIt Could Only Happen with You is the final album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring performances recorded in 1970 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1974.-Reception:...
(1970)
With Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
- There Will Never Be Another You (album)There Will Never Be Another You (album)There Will Never Be Another You is a live album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, recorded at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City on June 17, 1965 and released on the Impulse! label in 1978, featuring a performance by Rollins with Tommy Flanagan, Bob Cranshaw, Billy Higgins and Mickey...
(Impulse!, 1965) - Sonny Rollins on Impulse!Sonny Rollins on Impulse!Sonny Rollins on Impulse! is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, his first to be released on the Impulse! label, featuring performances by Rollins with Ray Bryant, Walter Booker and Mickey Roker.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1965)
With Blue Mitchell
Blue Mitchell
Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...
- Boss HornBoss HornBoss Horn is an album by American trumpeter Blue Mitchell recorded in 1966 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Matt Collar awarded the album 4 stars and stated "Trumpeter Blue Mitchell delivers a solid hard bop date with his 1966 Blue Note release Boss Horn".-Track...
(1966)
With Frank Foster
Frank Foster (musician)
Frank Foster was an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, arranger, and composer. Foster collaborated frequently with Count Basie and worked as a bandleader from the early 1950s.-Biography:...
- Manhattan FeverManhattan FeverManhattan Fever is an album by American jazz saxophonist Frank Foster recorded in 1968 and released on the Blue Note label. The CD reissue added five previously unreleased recordings from a 1969 session as bonus tracks.-Reception:...
(Blue Note, 1968)
With Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
- AllAll (Horace Silver album)All is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1972 featuring performances by Silver with Cecil Bridgewater, Harold Vick, Richie Resnicoff, Bob Cranshaw, and Mickey Roker with vocals by Andy Bey, Salome Bey and Gail Nelson...
(1972) - In Pursuit of the 27th ManIn Pursuit of the 27th ManIn Pursuit of the 27th Man is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1972 featuring performances by Silver with David Friedman, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Bob Cranshaw, and Mickey Roker. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars and states...
(1973)
With Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
- Olinga (1974)
With Stanley Turrentine
Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
- Rough 'n' TumbleRough 'n' TumbleRough 'n' Tumble is an album by jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine recorded for the Blue Note label in 1966 and performed by Turrentine with Blue Mitchell, James Spaulding, Pepper Adams, McCoy Tyner, Grant Green, Bob Cranshaw, and Mickey Roker with arrangements by Duke Pearson.-Reception:The...
(1966) - The SpoilerThe SpoilerThe Spoiler may refer to:*Spoiler , a comic book character*Don Jardine, professional wrestler with the ring name "The Spoiler"*The Spoiler a 1966 album by jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine...
(1966)
With Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
- Standards (1967)
- Live at the LighthouseLive at the LighthouseLive at the Lighthouse is a live album recorded by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and released on the Blue Note label. The album features live performances by Morgan, Bennie Maupin, Harold Mabern, Jymie Merritt and Mickey Roker recorded at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California, in July, 1970...
(1970) - Sonic BoomSonic BoomSonic boom may refer to:* Sonic boom, a shockwave, usually caused by aircraft travelling faster than sound* Sonic Boom is an album by hard rock-band KISS* Sonic Boom, Inc., a mobile entertainment developer and publisher...
(released 1979)