Mickey Roker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Granville William Roker
Born September 3, 1932
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Died May 22, 2017 (aged 84)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres Jazz, hard bop, bebop
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Drums
Granville William “Mickey” Roker (September 3, 1932 – May 22, 2017) was 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 jazz scene in Philadelphia, where drummer Philly Joe Jones became Roker’s idol.
In the early 1950s, he began to gain recognition as a sensitive yet hard-driving big-band drummer. He was especially favored by Dizzy Gillespie, who remarked of him that “once he sets a groove, whatever it is, you can go to Paris and come back and it’s right there. You never have to worry about it.” Roker was soon in demand for his supportive skills in both big-band and small-group settings. While in Philadelphia he played with Jimmy Oliver, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Divine, King James and Sam Reed before moving to New York in 1959, where his first gigs were with Gigi Gryce, Ray Bryant, Joe Williams-Junior Mance, Nancy Wilson and the Duke Pearson big band.
In 1992, he replaced Connie Kay in the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Roker was still active on the Philadelphia scene during the 21st century before his death. He had recorded with Dizzy 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 many other jazz musicians.
Roker died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 84.
Discography
As sideman
With Gene Ammons
Got My Own (Prestige, 1972)
Big Bad Jug (Prestige, 1972)
Together Again for the Last Time (Prestige, 1973 [1976]) – with Sonny Stitt
With Roy Ayers
Daddy Bug (Atlantic, 1969)
With Ray Brown
Red Hot Ray Brown Trio (Concord, 1987)
With Ray Bryant
Con Alma (Columbia, 1960)
Dancing the Big Twist (Columbia, 1961)
With Art Farmer
The Time and the Place: The Lost Concert (Mosaic, 1966 2007)
The Time and the Place (Columbia, 1967)
The Art Farmer Quintet Plays the Great Jazz Hits (Columbia, 1967)
With Frank Foster
Manhattan Fever (Blue Note, 1968)
With Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie’s Big 4 (Pablo, 1974)
Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods (Pablo, 1975) with Machito
The Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 (Pablo, 1975)
Bahiana (Pablo, 1975)
Carter, Gillespie Inc. (Pablo, 1976) with Benny Carter
Dizzy’s Party (Pablo, 1976)
With Gigi Gryce
Saying Somethin’! (New Jazz, 1960)
The Hap’nin’s (New Jazz, 1960)
The Rat Race Blues (New Jazz, 1960)
Reminiscin’ (Mercury, 1960)
Doin’ the Gigi (Uptown, 2011)
With Herbie Hancock
Speak Like a Child (Blue Note, 1968)
With Gene Harris
The Gene Harris Trio Plus One (Concord, 1984)
With Bobby Hutcherson
San Francisco (Blue Note, 1970)
With Milt Jackson
Born Free (Limelight, 1966)
Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet (Verve, 1968)
Olinga (CTI, 1974)
The Milt Jackson Big 4 (Pablo, 1975)
With Willis Jackson
Really Groovin’ (Prestige, 1961)
In My Solitude (Moodsville, 1961)
With Hank Jones
Groovin’ High (Muse, 1978)
With Sam Jones
Something New (Interplay, 1979)
With Irene Kral
Better Than Anything (Äva, 1963)
With Charles Kynard
The Soul Brotherhood (Prestige, 1969)
With Mike Longo
Funkia (GrooveMerchant, 1973)
With Junior Mance
Junior’s Blues (Riverside, 1962)
Happy Time (Jazzland, 1962)
Monk (Live) (Chiaroscuro, 2003)
With Herbie Mann
Stone Flute (Embryo, 1969 [1970])
With Blue Mitchell
Boss Horn (Blue Note, 1966)
With the Modern Jazz Quartet
MJQ & Friends: A 40th Anniversary Celebration (Atlantic, 1994)
With Lee Morgan
Standards (Blue Note, 1967)
Live at the Lighthouse (Blue Note, 1970)
Sonic Boom (Blue Note, released 1979)
With Joe Pass
Quadrant (Pablo, 1977)
With Duke Pearson
Wahoo! (1964)
Honeybuns (1965)
Prairie Dog (1966)
Sweet Honey Bee (Blue Note, 1966)
Introducing Duke Pearson’s Big Band (Blue Note, 1967)
The Phantom (Blue Note, 1968)
Now Hear This (Blue Note, 1968)
How Insensitive (Blue Note, 1969)
It Could Only Happen with You (1970)
With Sonny Rollins
There Will Never Be Another You (album) (Impulse!, 1965)
Sonny Rollins on Impulse! (Impulse!, 1965)
With Shirley Scott
Soul Duo (Impulse!, 1966) with Clark Terry
Oasis (Muse, 1989)
Great Scott! (Muse, 1991)
Blues Everywhere (Candid, 1991)
Skylark (Candid, 1991)
With Horace Silver
All (Blue Note, 1972)
In Pursuit of the 27th Man (Blue Note, 1973)
With Buddy Terry
Awareness (Mainstream, 1971)
With Stanley Turrentine
Rough ‘n’ Tumble (Blue Note, 1966)
The Spoiler (Blue Note, 1966)
With McCoy Tyner
Live at Newport (Impulse!, 1963)
With Harold Vick
The Caribbean Suite (RCA Victor, 1966)
Commitment (Muse, 1967 [1974])
With Mary Lou Williams
Zoning (Mary Records, 1974 – later reissued by Smithsonian Folkways, with expansion)
Free Spirits (SteepleChase, 1975)
With Cedar Walton
The Electric Boogaloo Song (Prestige, 1969)
With Joe Williams
At Newport ’63 (RCA Victor, 1963)
With Phil Woods
Rights of Swing (Candid, 1961)