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Musician

Mickey Roker

Born:

Granville "Mickey" Roker is an American jazz drummer. 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 and yet hard-driving big-band drummer

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Article: Liner Notes

Tim Warfield: One For Shirley

Read "Tim Warfield: One For Shirley" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Jimmy Smith and Larry Young have continually set the benchmark for creative endeavors involving jazz and the Hammond B-3 organ, Smith being acknowledged for bringing the technical virtuosity of be-bop to the instrument and Young for expanding the vernacular based on the forward-thinking implications of John Coltrane. Somewhere in between these two, a colorful range of ...

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Article: Book Review

Philadelphia Jazz

Read "Philadelphia Jazz" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer


Philadelphia Jazz Suzanne Cloud and Diane Turner 127 pages ISBN 978-1-4671-0784-6 Images of America Arcadia Publishing 2022 Philadelphia longs to be known as a jazz town, a city distinguished by its major contribution to the jazz legacy. There is a good ...

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Article: Profile

Mary Lou Williams: Into the Zone of Music

Read "Mary Lou Williams: Into the Zone of Music" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


Few musicians have embraced the entire history of jazz like Mary Lou Williams, and at the same time shaped its development compositionally and instrumentally. She brought jazz into contact with classical music and played spiritual jazz before it became hip, but she was also a treasured teacher and mentor. Mary Lou Williams was born ...

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Article: Building a Jazz Library

Herbie Hancock: An Essential Top Ten Albums

Read "Herbie Hancock: An Essential Top Ten Albums" reviewed by Chris May


The title of Herbie Hancock's 1973 hit single “Chameleon," pulled from his jazz-funk monster Head Hunters (Columbia), was an apt one. Hancock had already undergone several transformations: from the blues-and-gospel-infused vibe of his Blue Note debut, Takin' Off (1962), to more experimentally inclined Blue Note albums in the mid-to-late 1960s, and on to his early 1970s ...

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Article: Interview

Joey DeFrancesco: From Musical Prodigy to Jazz Icon

Read "Joey DeFrancesco: From Musical Prodigy to Jazz Icon" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer


Joey DeFrancesco is a true master of the jazz organ, the one others look up to as the standard bearer, as was his inspirational hero, Jimmy Smith. Arguably, he could be dubbed the Mozart of the jazz organ, since like Mozart, he seemed to have been born with all the music already in him. By four, ...

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Article: Building a Jazz Library

Sonny Rollins: Ten Colossal Albums

Read "Sonny Rollins: Ten Colossal Albums" reviewed by Chris May


The history of modern jazz is a short one, but even so there are few musicians whose careers began in the bop era and who are still with us in 2022. Drummer Roy Haynes is one. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins is another. Both players recorded with trumpeter Fats Navarro and pianist Bud Powell in 1949.

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Article: Profile

Johnathan Blake: un batterista ai vertici

Read "Johnathan Blake: un batterista ai vertici" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Accolto tra i lavori migliori dell'anno dalle massime riviste internazionali Homeward Bound, è il quarto disco di Johnathan Blake e il debutto con l'etichetta Blue Note. L'album ha finalmente evidenziato le doti di compositore e leader del 45enne batterista di Philadelphia, figlio del violinista John Blake Jr., noto partner di McCoy Tyner, Archie Shepp, James Newton, ...

Album

The Complete Live at the Lighthouse

Label: Blue Note Records
Released: 2021
Track listing: Friday, July 10, 1970: Introduction by Lee Morgan; The Beehive; Introduction; Something Like This; Yunjana; Speedball; I Remember Britt; Introduction; Absolutions; Speedball; Introduction; Neophilia; Introduction; 416 East 10th Street; The Sidewinder; Speedball; Introduction; Peyote; Speedball.


Saturday, July 11, 1970: Aon (13:47) Introduction; Yunjana; Introduction; Something Like This; Introduction; I Remember Britt; Introduction; The Beehive; Speedball; Neophilia; Nommo; Peyote; Absolutions.
Sunday, July 12, 1970: Introduction; Something Like This; Introduction; Yunjana; I Remember Britt; Absolutions; Speedball; Introduction; Neophilia; Introduction; The Beehive; Speedball; Peyote; Nommo.

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Article: Interview

John Clayton: Career Reflections

Read "John Clayton: Career Reflections" reviewed by Schaen Fox


John Clayton is as interesting to talk to as he is an artist of great talent and experience. The former has allowed him to interact with numerous major figures of his time as well as have long tenures performing with aggregations as diverse as Count Basie's band and the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The latter gives him ...


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