Occupation(s) Drummer Name Mickey Roker Genres Jazz, Hard bop, Bebop | Instruments Drums Role Drummer | |
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Birth name Granville William Roker Associated acts 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, many more Movies Modern Jazz Quartet: 40th Anniversary Tour Albums Quadrant, Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, A Celebration Of Duke, The Ellington Album "Al, Let's Call This Monk! |
Mickey roker music mentorship
Granville William "Mickey" Roker (born March 9, 1932) is an American jazz drummer.
Contents
- Mickey roker music mentorship
- Dizzy gillespie sonny rollins hank jones rufus reid mickey roker 1987
- Biography
- As sideman
- Songs
- References
Dizzy gillespie sonny rollins hank jones rufus reid mickey roker 1987
Biography

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 lively jazz scene in Philadelphia, where the great Philly Joe Jones became Roker's idol.

Roker learned quickly, and he never stopped playing. In the early 1950s he started to gain recognition as a sensitive yet hard-driving big-band drummer. 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.

Still active on the Philadelphia scene in the 21st century, Roker has recorded with 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 greats.
As sideman
With Gene Ammons

With Roy Ayers
With Art Farmer
With Frank Foster
With Dizzy Gillespie
With Gigi Gryce
With Herbie Hancock
With Bobby Hutcherson
With Milt Jackson
With Willis Jackson
With Hank Jones
With Charles Kynard
With Mike Longo
With Junior Mance
With Herbie Mann
With Blue Mitchell
With the Modern Jazz Quartet
With Lee Morgan
With Duke Pearson
With Sonny Rollins
With Shirley Scott
With Horace Silver
With Buddy Terry
With Stanley Turrentine
With McCoy Tyner
With Harold Vick
With Mary Lou Williams
With Cedar Walton
With Joe Williams
With Phil Woods
Songs
Midnight Waltz
It Don't Mean a Thing If You Can't Tap Your Foot to It
Let's Call This
Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'
Pretty Little One
Close Enough for Love
The Pharaoh
Movin' Along
Bleeker Street Theme
I'm Beginning to See the Light
The Waltz You Swang for Me
To Each His Own
Star-Crossed Lovers
We See
Eronel
Stress and Trauma
If I Were a Bell
Subtle Rebuttal
Encounter
My Romance
Brilliant Corners
Consummation
One More: The Farewell
Ain't That Nothin'
I Mean You
Humph
Bossa Nova Ova
Reflections
Milestones
H & T Blues
C Jam Blues
Work