Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mickey Roker was born Granville William Roker on September 3, 1932 in Miami, Florida into extreme poverty. After his mother died when he was ten, he was taken by his grandmother to live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his uncle Walter. He gave the young boy his first drum kit, communicated his love of jazz, and introduced him to the Philadelphia jazz scene, where drummer Philly Joe Jones became his idol.

In the early 1950s, he started gaining recognition as a sensitive yet hard-driving big-band drummer. Favored by Dizzy Gillespie, he 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. Once there 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.

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, Lee Morgan, Roy Ayers, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Locke, and numerousother jazz musicians.

Drummer Mickey Roker Roker, who remained active on the Philadelphia music scene well into the 21st century, passed away on May 22, 2017 at the age of 84.

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