Mickey Roker

Granville William "Mickey" Roker (September 3, 1932 – May 22, 2017) was
Mickey Roker
an American jazz drummer.

Contents
Biography
Discography
As sideman
References
Roker in the 1980s

External links Background information

Birth name Granville William
Roker
Biography Born September 3,
Roker was born into extreme poverty in Miami to Granville (Sr.) and Willie Mae 1932
Roker. After his mother died (his father never lived with them), when he was Miami, Florida,
only ten, he was taken by his grandmother to live in Philadelphia with his uncle U.S.
Walter, who gave him his first drum kit and communicated his love of jazz to his Died May 22, 2017
nephew.[1] He also introduced the young Roker to the jazz scene in Philadelphia, (aged 84)
where drummer Philly Joe Jones became Roker's idol. Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
In the early 1950s, he began to gain recognition as a sensitive yet hard-driving
U.S.
big-band drummer. He was especially favored by Dizzy Gillespie, who remarked
Genres Jazz, hard bop,
of him that "once he sets a groove, whatever it is, you can go to Paris and come
bebop
back and it's right there. You never have to worry about it."[2] Roker was soon in
demand for his supportive skills in both big-band and small-group settings. Occupation(s) Musician
While in Philadelphia he played with Jimmy Oliver, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Instruments Drums
Divine, King James and Sam Reed before moving to New York in 1959, where
Associated acts Dizzy Gillespie,
his first gigs were with Gigi Gryce, Ray Bryant, Joe Williams, Junior Mance,
Sonny Rollins,
Nancy Wilson and the Duke Pearson big band.[2][3]
Duke Pearson,
In 1992, he replaced Connie Kay in the Modern Jazz Quartet.[2] Tommy
Flanagan, Ella
He recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Duke Pearson, Tommy Fitzgerald, Zoot
Flanagan, Ella Fitzgerald, Zoot Sims, Horace Silver, Junior Mance, Sarah Sims, Horace
Vaughan, Milt Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Phil Woods, Oscar Peterson, Ray Silver, Junior
Brown, Bucky Pizzarelli, Stanley Turrentine, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Mance, Sarah
Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Locke, and many other jazz musicians. Vaughan, Milt
Jackson, Herbie
Roker was still active on the Philadelphia music scene during the 21st century.
Hancock, Phil
He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 84.[4]
Woods, Oscar
Peterson, Ray
Discography Brown, Bucky
As sideman Pizzarelli, Stanley
Turrentine,
With Nat Adderley
Toshiko Akiyoshi,
Little Big Horn (Riverside, 1963) Hank Jones,
With Gene Ammons Bobby
Hutcherson, Joe
Got My Own (Prestige, 1972) Locke
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 Randy Brecker

Score (Solid State, 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 Jon Faddis

Youngblood (Pablo, 1976)

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)

Left to right: Roker, Ben Brown, Dizzy
The Hap'nin's (New Jazz, 1960) Gillespie, and a hidden Rodney
The Rat Race Blues (New Jazz, 1960) Jones in Buffalo, N.Y., 1977
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 (Groove Merchant, 1973)

Talk with the Spirits (Pablo, 1976)
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 Billie Poole

Confessin' the Blues (Riverside, 1963)

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 Reuben Wilson

The Cisco Kid (Groove Merchant, 1973)

With Phil Woods

Rights of Swing (Candid, 1961)

With The N.Y. Hardbop Quintet

Rokermotion (TCB, 1996)

With Oscar Peterson and Stephane Grapelli

Skol - EP (Pablo, 1979)

With Joshua Breakstone

Let's Call This Monk! (Double-Time, 1997)

References
1. "Drummer Mickey Roker Dies at 84" (https://jazztimes.com/news/drummer-mickey-roker-dies-at-84/). JazzTimes.
May 23, 2017. ISSN 0272-572X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0272-572X).
2. Feather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (1999). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (https://books.google.com/books?id=
B4EjDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA567). Oxford University Press. p. 567. ISBN 978-0195320008.
3. Roker, Mickey (April 2011). "An Interview with Mickey Roker" (https://ethaniverson.com/interviews/interview-with-
mickey-roker/) (Interview). Interviewed by Ethan Iverson.
4. Chinen, Nate (May 22, 2017). "Mickey Roker, Dynamic Hard-Bop Drummer and Philly Jazz Institution, Dies at
84" (http://wbgo.org/post/mickey-roker-dynamic-hard-bop-drummer-and-philly-jazz-institution-dies-84#stream/0).
WGBO. Retrieved May 23, 2017.

External links
Mickey Roker (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mickey-roker-mn0000474198) at AllMusic
Mickey Roker (https://www.discogs.com/artist/271155-Mickey-Roker) discography at Discogs
Mickey Roker (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7539959/) on IMDb
Mickey Roker (http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Mickey_Roker.html) at Drummerworld

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This page was last edited on 5 June 2019, at 03:28 (UTC).

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