Articles

Mickey Roker: You Never Lose the Blues

By Victor L. Schermer

Drummer Mickey Roker is a mainstay and icon of the jazz world, having a played with Dizzy Gillespie, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lee Morgan, and many of the other signature groups of modern jazz.

Yet he has always maintained his Philadelphia roots, and is and has been a regular at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus in that city for many years. Still active as a drummer and a mentor, he has witnessed and been part of the jazz world in action ...

Mickey Roker

By George Kanzler

“I started out in rhythm 'n' blues when I first got a trap drum set as a teenager," says Mickey Roker, 76, from his home, “because I was young and it was easier to play that music than playing jazz since I didn't go to school for music". But after he got back to Philadelphia from the Army in 1955, he decided “it would be better for me to play in jazz where I could learn more since they utilized ...