Roy Lee Porter was an American 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...

 drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

.

Porter moved from Walsenburg to Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

 when he was eight years old and began playing drums in rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 bands while a teenager. He attended Wiley College

Wiley College

Wiley College is a four-year, private, historically black, liberal arts college located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is notable as one of the oldest predominantly...

 in Texas briefly, where trumpeter Kenny Dorham

Kenny Dorham

McKinley Howard Dorham was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer born in Fairfield, Texas. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did...

 was a fellow student. He worked with Milt Larkin

Milt Larkin

Milt Larkin was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.Larkin was an autodidact on the trumpet, and got his start playing in Texas in the 1930s with Chester Boone and Giles Mitchell...

 in 1943.

After military service, Porter settled in Los Angeles, and his services were soon in demand by some of the pioneers of bebop

Bebop

Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...

. He worked with Teddy Bunn

Teddy Bunn

Teddy Bunn was a top-rated American blues and jazz guitarist in the 1930s.Theodore Bunn was born in Freeport, New York in 1909. Twenty years later in 1929 he began recording with Duke Ellington as a guest performer. From 1929 to 1931, he played with The Washboard Serenaders...

 and Howard McGhee

Howard McGhee

Howard McGhee was one of the very first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for lightning-fast fingers and very high notes...

, making his first recordings with the latter. In 1946 he backed Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 on such Dial

Dial Records (1946)

Dial Records was a United States based record label specializing in bebop jazz. Dial was founded by Ross Russell in 1946, who operated the label for about a decade. Notable artists who recorded for Dial included Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Milt Jackson...

 classics

Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial Sessions

Charlie Parker's Savoy And Dial Sessions as a leader were recorded between 1945 and 1948.Also included is Miles Davis' first session as a leader in 1947 with Charlie Parker on tenor saxophone.-Session 1:...

 as "Moose the Mooche

Moose the Mooche

"Moose the Mooche" is a bebop composition written by Charlie Parker in 1946. It was written shortly after his friend and longtime musical companion Dizzy Gillespie left him in Los Angeles to return to New York City. Charlie Parker had been a long time heroin addict and had been using since he was...

", "Yardbird Suite

Yardbird Suite

Yardbird Suite is a bebop standard composed by Charlie Parker in 1946. It follows an AABA form. It was used as the title of Lawrence O. Koch's biography of Parker....

", "Ornithology

Ornithology (composition)

"Ornithology" is a jazz standard by bebop alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Benny Harris.Its title is a reference to Parker's nickname, "Bird"...

" and the unfortunate recording of "Lover Man".

Porter played on Los Angeles' Central Avenue

Central Avenue (Los Angeles)

Central Avenue is a major north-south thoroughfare in the central portion of the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. Located just to the west of the Alameda Corridor, it runs from the eastern end of the Los Angeles Civic Center south, ending at Del Amo Boulevard in Carson...

 with such leading bebop players as Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

, Wardell Gray

Wardell Gray

Wardell Gray was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods.Today often overlooked, Gray's playing displays a unique style, an unmatched tone and a strong presence.-Early years:...

 and Teddy Edwards

Teddy Edwards

Theodore Marcus "Teddy" Edwards was an American jazz tenor saxophonist based on the West Coast of the US. Some consider him to be one of the most influential jazz saxophonists.-Biography:...

, and in San Francisco with Hampton Hawes

Hampton Hawes

Hampton Hawes was an American bebop and hard-bop jazz pianist, recognized as one of the finest and most influential of the 1950s.-Biography:...

 and Sonny Criss

Sonny Criss

William "Sonny" Criss was an American jazz musician.An alto saxophonist of prominence during the bebop era of jazz, he was one of many players influenced by Charlie Parker.-Biography:...

. He organized and went on the road with a big band in 1949 which included Art Farmer

Art Farmer

Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...

, Jimmy Knepper

Jimmy Knepper

James M. Knepper was an American jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Knepper was twice on the receiving end of Mingus' legendary temper...

 and Eric Dolphy

Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...

.

During the 1950s Roy Porter was inactive as a jazz musician due to drug problems and returned to music only infrequently afterwards.