Mickey Roker

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Mickey Roker (1980s)

Granville William "Mickey" Roker (born September 3, 1932 in Miami , Florida - † May 22, 2017 ) was an American jazz drummer.

Live and act

"Mickey" Roker grew up in poor circumstances with his mother and her younger brother Walter Bowe until he was ten. In 1942 his mother died and her grandmother took her to live with relatives in Philadelphia . “My uncle Walter took care of me. Because he was the man in the family, he went to work when he was fifteen. ”Walter Bowe shared a love of jazz with his nephew and listened to the Philadelphia radio. "Uncle Walter wanted to play himself, but he was too busy with the work." Walter Bowe bought the first jazz records and soon the first, a small drum kit for Mickey. As a teenager, Mickey Roker was an early club regular and he admired Philly Joe Jones . As a young man, he witnessed a jazz culture in Philadelphia that no longer exists. He heard musicians like Miles Davis in the Showboat , JJ Johnson in the Peps Star Bar , and Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie coming to the town's clubs. Without the care of his uncle Walter Bowe for him and his mother, he says he would never have played the drums.

In 1956 Mickey married Poker; with his wife Priscilla he had two children, Ronald and Debra. In 1957 he played a six-day engagement at the Peps Star Bar with Gloria Lynne and Jimmy Heath . It was there that Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown became aware of him.

Bob Cranshaw met Mickey Roker in 1957. The drummer played with Ray Bryant in Chicago . When Arthur Harper, the bassist, slept in one evening, Bob Cranshaw, always present on such occasions, took over the job. “Every time I came to Chicago, I looked at the work of the musicians. If someone was late, I was ready to jump in and play, ”said Cranshaw. The first thing Bob Cranshaw discovered about Mickey Roker was his sense of humor. "He made me laugh." In 1961 the two played a gig with the Gigi Gryce Band in Chicago. Later that year, when Roker was playing with Mary Lou Williams at New York's Hickory House , she fired bassist Larry Gales and Bob Cranshaw came right away. Cranshaw loved to play with Mickey Roker: “Mickey is so tasteful. He is soulful, knows something about dynamics and can build a piece. ”The two have worked together freelance in New York and Chicago since 1957. "Once we got together, it was a love affair," said Roker, "a musical couple," Cranshaw. The two formed the basis for the Junior Mance Trio in 1963 with singer Joe Williams at regular appearances in Peps and Showboat (recorded in Newport in 1963) and soon after recorded for the Blue Note Records label . Studio recordings with Stanley Turrentine followed.

Mickey Roker explains their excellent and valued collaboration: “We play swinging bluesy phrases within the melody. We avoided the avant-garde and stuck to the mainstream. "Bob Cranshaw says," My thing is feeling. I am a swing bass player who keeps the beat. There are melodic bass players and solo bass players. I play the root notes of the chords, make it grippy and round it off completely. ”From then on, for example the 1962 album Junior's Blues by the Junior Mance Trio, with the funky Gravy Waltz , Cranshaw and Roker play together until their seventies. "Maybe we're going a little further (musically), but we're not going too far because we want people to understand and enjoy it." On the 1966 album by Stanley Turrentine Rough 'n' Tumble , arranged by Duke Pearson , Ignite she, especially on the jazzy-soulful Feeling Good, the rhythm. "We make it easy and an art out of it."

Mickey Roker has now received many orders from Shirley Scott , Sonny Rollins , Milt Jackson and Lee Morgan . Duke Pearson introduced Roker through his collaboration with Cranshaw on Blue Note Records . "Herbie Hancock and Hank Jones were probably the first big names to call me," says Roker of the time.

Mickey Roker with Ben Brown and Dizzy Gillespie (1977)

In the 1970s he played on Dizzy Gillespie's live albums , such as at the 1975 Montreux Jazz Festival . Roker compliments Gillespies for his precision: “If you play with Mickey, you can go to China, and when you come back the pace is the same when you left. ”Roker set the beats exactly on the chord changes. His game was interspersed with quick, subtle embellishments. Roker rarely played solos, but when they did they seemed explosive. In Philadelphia he was famous as the house drummer of the Ortlieb Jazz House Club , which opened in 1987 and which he musically opened with Shirley Scott. In the 1970s he took part with Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald z. B. A Perfect Match . He toured alongside club work in the 1980s, recording with the Modern Jazz Quartet , Oscar Peterson , Ray Bryant , Jackson Brown , Ray Brown and Zoot Sims .

Ortlieb's Jazz Haus became more and more popular due to his collaboration with Shirley Scott, Benny Nelson , then Arthur Harper . As a curious relic of the declining jazz club landscape as well as the declining industry, the visitors loved it and were proud to have been there. Roker has also performed in Philadelphia with tenor saxophonist Bootsie Barnes . Bill Cosby , who worked with Barnes, tried unsuccessfully to get Roker off his show. Roker accompanied the increasingly younger musicians guesting in the club in various styles from hardbop to the avant-garde jazz of Archie Shepp . "There's no one who plays a fast track the way it needs to be played, like Bobby Durham, Duck Scott, Billy James and Mickey, without it getting so loud you can't hear anything," says Jimmy Bruno, a jazz guitarist . Roker played a rather small drum set with two toms (12 [hanging], 15 "[floor tom]), the snare, one or two cymbals, the hi-hat and the bass drum (18").

Mickey Roker was known for his warm, personable manner. He supported young musicians by giving them an overview of the piece with playful hints about the changes and thus putting their solo work in the right light and motivating them positively. Roker took part in the semi-annual tribute for vibraphonist Milt Jackson in Ortliebs. He has also performed at the Bahamas Jazz Festival and recorded with James Moody, Benny Golson , Richard Davis , Jimmy Owens and Hank Jones.

Discographic notes

  • Horace Silver In Pursuit of the 27th Man (Blue Note, 1973)
  • Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Mickey Roker, Joe Pass All Too Soon Quadrant Toasts Duke Ellington (Pablo 1980)
  • Mike LeDonne Bags Groove - A Tribute to Milt Jackson (Double-Time Records 2001, with Mickey Roker and Bob Cranshaw)
  • Bucky Pizzarelli : 5 for Freddie (Arbors Jazz, 2007)

Lexical entry

Web links

Commons : Mickey Roker  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Travel Advisory; Jazz Festival In Philadelphia. In: The New York Times . May 19, 1991, accessed May 23, 2017.
  2. ^ Nate Chinen: Mickey Roker, Dynamic Hard-Bop Drummer and Philly Jazz Institution, Dies at 84. In: WBGO.org. May 23, 2017, accessed May 23, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Mike DelVecchia: Mickey Roker - The Voltan of Ortlieb's Jazzhaus. In: philadelphiawriters.com. June 2004, archived from the original on April 18, 2008 ; accessed on May 23, 2017 (English).
  4. ↑ Joe Williams - At Newport '63 / Jump for Joy CD. In: cduniverse.com. Accessed May 23, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Roker, Mickey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roker, Granville William (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz drummer
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Miami , Florida , United States
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 2017