Roy Porter -

Roy Porter (July 30, 1923 — Jan. 24, 1998) is an American jazz drummer and bandleader from Walsenburg, Colo. He recorded in 1940s bebop settings with Howard McGhee and Charlie Parker before leading the Roy Porter Sound Machine, whose early-1970s albums combined jazz instrumentation with funk rhythms.

Background

Roy Lee Porter was born July 30, 1923, in Walsenburg, Colorado. His father died when Porter was eight, after which he moved with his mother to Colorado Springs. Porter took clarinet lessons in school but preferred drums. He heard Duke Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford on Saturday-night radio broadcasts and pursued the instrument. Porter also cited Chick Webb’s drum feature on “Liza” as an early impetus. He graduated from high school in 1941 and enrolled at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. At Wiley, Porter played drums in the Wiley Collegians beside trumpeter Kenny Dorham.

Porter left Wiley in March 1943 and joined Milt Larkin’s orchestra the next month as replacement for drummer Joe Marshall. The orchestra took Porter to Washington’s Howard Theatre and New York’s Apollo before the breakup of the Larkin band. Porter entered military service after the orchestra dissolved, then settled in Los Angeles. He worked there with guitarist Teddy Bunn before trumpeter Howard McGhee hired him in 1945. Porter made his first known recordings with McGhee in Los Angeles on Sept. 4 for Philo Records.

Charlie Parker selected Porter for a March 28, 1946, Dial session at Radio Recorders that produced “Moose the Mooche” and “Ornithology.” Porter remained active on Central Avenue with saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Teddy Edwards. He formed a 17-piece bebop orchestra in 1948 with trumpeter Art Farmer and alto saxophonist Eric Dolphy among the young Los Angeles players. The band rehearsed at Club Alabam and worked local ballrooms. Porter took the orchestra into Radio Recorders in January and February 1949 for two Savoy sessions. He moved to San Francisco in 1950 and worked with pianist Hampton Hawes and alto saxophonist Sonny Criss.

Porter served two years in prison from 1953 as a result of heroin addiction. He resumed Los Angeles studio work after release and returned to record with alto saxophonist Earl Bostic at a February 1957 session. By the late 1960s, Porter led a trio called Roy Porter Sounds. He added horn players and renamed the enlarged group Roy Porter Sound Machine. Producer Bumps Blackwell encouraged Porter to record the Sound Machine, and Porter followed with the private-press project that became Jessica on Chelan Records.

Discography: