Mickey Roker


Granville William "Mickey" Roker was an American jazz drummer.

Biography

Roker was born into extreme poverty in Miami to Granville and Willie Mae Roker. After his mother died, 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 1965 Mickey joined Art Farmer and Benny Golson's revamped group, the "New York Jazz Sextet".
In 1992, he replaced Connie Kay in the Modern Jazz Quartet.
He 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 was still active on the Philadelphia music scene during the 21st century. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 84, of natural causes, though he had been suffering from diabetes, lung cancer, and other health issues.

Discography

As sideman

With Nat Adderley
With Gene Ammons
  • Got My Own
  • Big Bad Jug
  • Together Again for the Last Time - with Sonny Stitt
With Roy Ayers
  • Daddy Bug
With Joshua Breakstone
  • Let's Call This Monk!
With Randy Brecker
  • Score
With Ray Brown
  • Red Hot Ray Brown Trio
With Ray Bryant
With 'Donald Byrd
The Creeper
Electric Byrd
Kofi 00
With Jon Faddis
  • Youngblood
With Art Farmer
  • The Time and the Place: The Lost Concert
  • The Time and the Place
  • The Art Farmer Quintet Plays the Great Jazz Hits
With Frank Foster
  • Manhattan Fever
With Dizzy Gillespie
File:Mickey_Roker_&_Dizzy_Gillespie_2.jpg|thumb|Left to right: Roker, Ben Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and a hidden Rodney Jones in Buffalo, N.Y., 1977
With Gigi Gryce
  • Saying Somethin'!
  • The Hap'nin's
  • The Rat Race Blues
  • Doin' the Gigi
With Herbie Hancock
With Gene Harris
With Bobby Hutcherson
  • San Francisco
With Milt Jackson
  • Born Free
  • Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet
  • Olinga
  • The Milt Jackson Big 4
With Willis Jackson
  • Really Groovin
  • In My Solitude
With Hank Jones
  • Groovin' High
With Sam Jones
  • Something New
With Irene Kral
  • Better Than Anything
With Charles Kynard
  • The Soul Brotherhood
With Mike Longo
  • Funkia
  • Talk with the Spirits
With Junior Mance
  • Junior's Blues
  • Happy Time
  • Monk
With Herbie Mann
  • Stone Flute
With Blue Mitchell
  • Boss Horn
With the Modern Jazz Quartet
With Lee Morgan
  • Standards
  • Live at the Lighthouse
  • Sonic Boom
With The N.Y. Hardbop Quintet
  • Rokermotion
With Joe Pass
  • Quadrant
With Duke Pearson
  • Wahoo!
  • Honeybuns
  • Prairie Dog
  • Sweet Honey Bee
  • Introducing Duke Pearson's Big Band
  • The Phantom
  • Now Hear This
  • How Insensitive
  • It Could Only Happen with You
With Oscar Peterson and Stephane Grappelli
  • Skol
With Billie Poole
With Sonny Rollins
  • There Will Never Be Another You
  • Sonny Rollins on Impulse!
With Shirley Scott
  • Soul Duo with Clark Terry
  • Oasis
  • Great Scott!
  • Blues Everywhere
  • Skylark
With Horace Silver
With Buddy Terry
  • Awareness
With Stanley Turrentine
  • Rough 'n' Tumble
  • The Spoiler
With McCoy Tyner
  • Live at Newport
With Harold Vick
  • The Caribbean Suite
  • Commitment
With Mary Lou Williams
  • Zoning
  • Free Spirits
With Cedar Walton
  • The Electric Boogaloo Song
With Joe Williams
  • At Newport '63
With Reuben Wilson
  • The Cisco Kid
With Phil Woods
  • ''Rights of Swing''