Roger Humphries
Encyclopedia
Roger Humphries is an American
jazz drummer.
Born into a family of ten children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
, Humphries began playing drums at age four, and went professional at age 14. He led an ensemble at Carnegie Hall
at age 16. Early in the 1960s, he began touring with jazz musicians; one of his more prominent gigs was in a trio with Stanley Turrentine
and Shirley Scott
in 1962. In 1964, he played with Horace Silver
, including on the album Song for My Father
, where he plays on side 1 (Roy Brooks
drums on side 2). Following this Humphries drummed for Ray Charles
.
Humphries's list of credits in jazz, R&B, and pop is extensive. Musicians he has played with, in addition to the above, include Lee Morgan
, Grant Green
, Billy Taylor
, Bill Doggett
, Benny Green
, Lionel Hampton
, Coleman Hawkins
, Barry Harris, Clark Terry
, J. J. Johnson, Billy Preston
, Joe Henderson
, Freddie Hubbard
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Jack McDuff
, Gene Harris
, George Harris
, George Benson
, Jon Faddis
, Slide Hampton
, Johnny Griffin
, Herbie Mann
, Randy Brecker
, Joe Williams
, Milt Jackson
, and Jimmy Witherspoon
.
Humphries led his own band in the early 1970s, R.H. Factor, and led ensembles under other names into the 1990s. He has also held teaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh
and the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts
. He released albums under his own name in 1993 and 2003.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz drummer.
Born into a family of ten children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, Humphries began playing drums at age four, and went professional at age 14. He led an ensemble at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
at age 16. Early in the 1960s, he began touring with jazz musicians; one of his more prominent gigs was in a trio 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...
and Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
in 1962. In 1964, he played with Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
, including on the album Song for My Father
Song for My Father
Song for My Father is a 1965 album by The Horace Silver Quintet, released on the Blue Note label in 1965. The album was inspired by a trip that Silver had made to Brazil. The cover artwork features a photograph of Silver's father, John Tavares Silva, to whom the title song was dedicated...
, where he plays on side 1 (Roy Brooks
Roy Brooks
Roy Brooks was an American hard bop jazz drummer.-Biography:Brooks was born in Detroit and drummed since childhood. He was an outstanding varsity basketball player as a teenager and was offered a scholarship to the Detroit Institute of Technology; he attended the school for three semesters and...
drums on side 2). Following this Humphries drummed for Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
.
Humphries's list of credits in jazz, R&B, and pop is extensive. Musicians he has played with, in addition to the above, include Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
, Grant Green
Grant Green
Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
, Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and since 1994, he was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in...
, Bill Doggett
Bill Doggett
Bill Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.-Biography:William Ballard Doggett was born in...
, Benny Green
Benny Green
Benny Green was a British jazz saxophonist, who was best known by the public for his radio shows and books.- Early life :...
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
, Barry Harris, Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
, J. J. Johnson, Billy Preston
Billy Preston
William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...
, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, 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...
, Jack McDuff
Jack McDuff
"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...
, Gene Harris
Gene Harris
Gene Harris was an American jazz pianist known for his warm sound and blues and gospel infused style that is known as soul jazz....
, George Harris
George Harris
George Harris may refer to:*George Harris, 1st Baron Harris , British general*George Prideaux Robert Harris , Australian naturalist*George Harris , English Unitarian minister in Scotland...
, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...
, Slide Hampton
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
, Herbie Mann
Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
, Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
, Joe Williams
Joe Williams (jazz singer)
Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...
, 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...
, and Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
.
Humphries led his own band in the early 1970s, R.H. Factor, and led ensembles under other names into the 1990s. He has also held teaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
and the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts
Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts
Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6–12 is a magnet school located in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CAPA is one of four 6th to 12th grade schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools...
. He released albums under his own name in 1993 and 2003.
Discography
- Horace SilverHorace SilverHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
Live 1964 (Emerald, 1964) - Horace SilverHorace SilverHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
Song for my father (Blue Note, 1964) - Carmell JonesCarmell JonesCarmell Jones was an American jazz trumpet player.Jones was born in Kansas City, Kansas. He is best known for his work with Horace Silver, appearing in the album Song for My Father....
Jay Hawk talk (Prestige, 1965) - Horace SilverHorace SilverHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
Cape Verdean blues (Blue Note, 1965) - Horace SilverHorace SilverHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
The Jody Grind (Blue Note, 1966) - Frank Cunimondo Trio Introducing Lynn Marino (Mondo, 1969)
- Nathan DavisNathan DavisNathan Davis was an American film and television actor.Davis was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Romanian immigrants, Rose and Fred Davis.Davis started acting in the late 1970s...
Makatuka (Segue, 1971) - Dwayne Dolphin Portrait of Adrian (Minor Music, 1993)
- Jimmy PonderJimmy PonderJimmy Ponder is an American jazz guitarist.Ponder started playing guitar at age 14, and was heavily influenced by Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. He began playing with Charles Earland at 17, and in the following years played with Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine,...
Something to ponder (Muse, 1994) - Steve Rudolph Everything I love (R&L Jazz, 1995)
- Al Dowe & Etta Cox Sunday Jam (1996)
- Roger Humphries Big Band Don't give up (2003)
- Bill HeidBill HeidBill Heid is an American soul jazz and hard bop jazz pianist and organist, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, probably better known for his work with musicians such as Koko Taylor, Henry Johnson and Fenton Robinson, among others.-Discography:*This is My Rifle Westside*Bop Rascal ...
Air mobile (Doodlin', 2006)