Roy Brooks (March 9, 1938 – November 15, 2005) was an American

jazz drummer Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion (predominantly the drum kit, which includes a variety of drums and cymbals) in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz fusion and 1980s-era Latin jazz. The techniques an ...

Biography

Early life

Brooks was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and drummed since childhood, his earliest experiences of music coming through his mother, who sang in church. He was an outstanding varsity

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player as a teenager and was offered a scholarship to the Detroit Institute of Technology; he attended the school for three semesters and then

dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

to tour with

Yusef Lateef Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in the United States. Although Lateef's main i ...

Roy Brooks Roy Brooks (March 9, 1938 – November 15, 2005) was an American Jazz drumming, jazz drummer. Biography Early life Brooks was born in Detroit and drummed since childhood, his earliest experiences of music coming through his mother, who sang in c ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Career

After time with Lateef and

Barry Harris Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style. Influenced by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Harris in turn influenc ...

, he played with Beans Bowles and with the

Four Tops The Four Tops are an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1953 as the Four Aims. They were one of the most commercially successful American pop music groups of the 1960s and helped propel Motown Records to international fame. The ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

and

Ira Gitler Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...

, ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. Oxford, 1999, p. 82. He played with

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

from 1959 to 1964, including on the album '' Song for My Father''; in 1963 he released his first album as a leader. Following this he freelanced in New York City through the 1960s and early 1970s, playing with Lateef again (1967–70),

Sonny Stitt Sonny Stitt (born Edward Hammond Boatner Jr.; February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. Known for his warm tone, he was one of the best-documented saxophonists of his era, recording over ...

Lee Morgan Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s and a cornerstone of the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label, Morgan came to prominence in his la ...

Dexter Gordon Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" an ...

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

, Junior Cook,

Blue Mitchell Richard Allen "Blue" Mitchell (March 13, 1930 – May 21, 1979) was an American trumpeter and composer who worked in jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and funk. He recorded albums as leader and sideman for Riverside, Mainstream Records, and Bl ...

, Charles McPherson,

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

(1970),

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a ...

Dollar Brand Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934), previously known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...

Jackie McLean John Lenwood McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their death. Bio ...

, James Moody (1970–72),

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

(1972–73), and

Milt Jackson Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with ...

. He married Hermine Brooks in 1967.Music, Madness & Marquette Prison
''

Metro Times The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly newspaper located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area. The ''Metro Times'' was an official sponsor of the now-defunct De ...

'', December 12, 2001. Accessed March 11, 2008. His 1970 album ''The Free Slave'' featured

Cecil McBee Cecil McBee (born May 19, 1935) is an American jazz bassist. He has recorded as a leader only a handful of times since the 1970s, but has contributed as a sideman to a number of classic jazz albums. Biography Early life and career McBee was b ...

and

Woody Shaw Woody Herman Shaw Jr. (December 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, arranger, band leader, and educator. Shaw is widely known as one of the 20th century's most important and influentia ...

. Later in 1970 he joined

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

's ensemble

M'Boom M'Boom was an American jazz percussion group founded by drummer Max Roach in 1970. The original members were Roach, Roy Brooks, Warren Smith (jazz percussionist), Warren Smith, Joe Chambers, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, and Freddie Waits. All of M'B ...

, and in 1972 put together the ensemble The Artistic Truth. Brooks's performances often included unusual instruments such as the

musical saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque frict ...

and drums with vacuum tubes set up so as to regulate the pitch. He began to acquire a reputation for bizarre behavior on and off stage, and occasionally sought treatment for mental disorders. In 1975 he left New York and returned to Detroit, and began using

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

to regulate his behavior. In the 1980s he returned to The Artistic Truth and gigged regularly in Detroit with Kenny Cox, Harold McKinney, and Wendell Harrison. With those three he co-founded M.U.S.I.C. (Musicians United to Save Indigenous Culture), and later also founded the Aboriginal Percussion Choir, an ensemble devoted to the use of non-Western percussion instruments. He used his basement as a practice and learning space, working with children as well as accomplished musicians. In the 1990s Detroit's jazz scene waned, and Brooks ceased taking medication; he again began breaking down at gigs, and in 1994 was institutionalized for three weeks. In 1997, he threatened his neighbor with a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

during a dispute over a lost set of house keys. He was charged with

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

but was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and was sentenced to mental treatment; however, he missed many of his appointments, and in 1999 he threatened another neighbor with a

bullwhip A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather or nylon, designed as a tool for working with livestock or for competition cracking. Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country. A ...

and a

machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...

over property rights to an adjacent vacant lot. Sentenced to further psychiatric treatment, he disappeared again, and when probation officers found him, he was

imprisoned Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

late in 2000. He served time at Marquette Prison until 2004, when he was placed in a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms ...

where he died in late 2005.

Posthumous albums

In June 2011, Sagittarius A-Star Records of Italy released a vinyl LP entitled ''Roy Brooks & the Improvisational Sphere,'' recorded by Charles ''Jazzrenegade'' Wood on September 3, 1999 Live at Lelli's, a well known Italian restaurant in Detroit. This is the sole available recording of this innovative select group assembled by Roy Brooks as the Improvisational Sphere for the three-day performance run at Lelli's. Personnel: Roy Brooks: Drums, Marimba, Steel Drum, Keyboard;

Amina Claudine Myers Amina Claudine Myers (born March 21, 1942) is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and arranger. Biography Born in Blackwell, Arkansas, "Myers was brought up largely by her great-aunt, a schoolteacher, and her great-uncle, a c ...

: Hammond B-3 Organ and Vocals;

Ray Mantilla Raymond Mantilla (June 22, 1934 – March 21, 2020) was an American percussionist. Discography As leader * ''Mantilla'' ( Inner City, 1978) * ''Hands of Fire'' ( Red, 1984) * ''Synergy'' (Red, 1986) * ''Dark Powers'' (Red, 1988) * ''The Next St ...

: Congas, Bells, Percussion
Jerry LeDuff
Tabla, Cuica, Shekere, Berimbau, Percussion; Rodney Rich: Guitar. This recording was released with thanks and the approval of Hermine Brooks and Raheem Brooks. In 2021, the Reel To Real label released ''Understanding'', a two-CD live recording from 1970 featuring Brooks with saxophonist

Carlos Garnett Carlos Garnett (December 1, 1938 - March 3, 2023) was a Panamanian-American jazz saxophonist. Biography Garnett was born on December 1, 1938, in Red Tank, Panama Canal Zone.He became interested in jazz after hearing the music of Louis Jordan an ...

, trumpeter

, pianist

Harold Mabern Harold Mabern Jr. (March 20, 1936 – September 17, 2019) was an American jazz pianist and composer, principally in the hard bop, post-bop, and soul jazz fields.Feather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. p. 425 ...

, and bassist

Discography

As leader

* ''Beat'' (Workshop Jazz, 1963) * '' The Free Slave '' (

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

, 1970) * ''Understanding'' (Reel To Real, 1970

021 069 is: * in Brazil, the telephone area code for the city of Rio de Janeiro and surrounding cities (Greater Rio de Janeiro) * in China, the telephone area code for the city of Shanghai. * in Indonesia, the area code for the city of Jakarta and su ...

- with

, and

* ''Ethnic Expressions'' (Im-Hotep, 1973) * ''Black Survival: The Sahel Concert at Town Hall'' (Im-Hotep, 1974) * ''Live at Town Hall'' (Baystate, 1978) * ''The Smart Set'' (Baystate, 1979) * '' Duet in Detroit'' ( Enja, 1993) - with

Don Pullen Don Gabriel Pullen (December 25, 1941 – April 22, 1995) was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed pieces ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz. The great ...

Geri Allen Geri Antoinette Allen (June 12, 1957 – June 27, 2017) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. She taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh. Early life and education Allen was born in Pontiac, Michigan ...

and

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...

* ''Roy Brooks & the Improvisational Sphere'' (Sagittarius A-Star, 2011) - with

, Jerry LeDuff and Rodney Rich

As sideman

With

* '' Smokin' with the Chet Baker Quintet'' (Prestige, 1965) * '' Groovin' with the Chet Baker Quintet'' (Prestige, 1965) * '' Comin' On with the Chet Baker Quintet'' (Prestige, 1965) * '' Cool Burnin' with the Chet Baker Quintet'' (Prestige, 1965) * '' Boppin' with the Chet Baker Quintet'' (Prestige, 1965) With Junior Cook * '' Junior's Cookin''' (Jazzland, 1961) With

Red Garland William McKinley "Red" Garland Jr. (May 13, 1923 – April 23, 1984) was an American modern jazz pianist. Known for his work as a bandleader and during the 1950s with Miles Davis, Garland helped popularize the block chord style of playing in jazz ...

* '' Auf Wiedersehen'' (MPS, 1971

975 Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using the Byzantine base at Antioch to pres ...

With

* ''

The Jumpin' Blues ''The Jumpin' Blues'' is an album by saxophonist Dexter Gordon which was recorded in 1970 and released on the Prestige label.

'' (Prestige, 1970) With

Abdullah Ibrahim Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934), previously known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...

* '' Banyana - Children of Africa'' (1976) * ''The Children of Africa'' (Enja, 1976) * '' Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand'' ( Chiaroscuro Records, 1977) with Buddy Tate * '' The Journey'' (Chiaroscuro Records, 1977) With

* '' A Flat, G Flat and C'' (1966, Impulse!) * '' The Golden Flute'' (Impulse!, 1966) * '' The Complete Yusef Lateef'' (Atlantic, 1967) * '' The Blue Yusef Lateef'' (Atlantic, 1968) * '' Yusef Lateef's Detroit'' (Atlantic, 1969) * '' The Diverse Yusef Lateef'' (1970) With

/ with

* '' Re: Percussion'' (Strata-East, 1973) * ''

'' (Columbia, 1979) * ''

Collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

'' (Soul Note, 1984) * ''

To the Max! ''To the Max!'' is a double album by American jazz drummer Max Roach featuring tracks recorded in 1990 and 1991 and released on the Enja label.Charles McPherson * '' McPherson's Mood'' (Prestige, 1969) With

* '' Blue's Moods'' (Riverside, 1960) * '' The Cup Bearers'' (Riverside, 1962) * '' Step Lightly'' (Blue Note, 1963) With David Newman * '' Newmanism'' (Atlantic, 1974) With

Sonny Red Sylvester Kyner Jr. (December 17, 1932 – March 20, 1981), known as Sonny Red, was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist and composer associated with the hard bop idiom among other styles. Sonny Red played with Art Blakey, Curtis Fuller, ...

* '' Out of the Blue'' (Blue Note, 1960) ;With

Red Rodney Robert Roland Chudnick (September 27, 1927 – May 27, 1994), known professionally as Red Rodney, was an American jazz trumpeter. Biography Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he became a professional musician at 15, working in the mid-1940 ...

* ''

Bird Lives! ''Bird Lives!'' is an album by trumpeter Red Rodney featuring performances of tunes by, or associated with, Charlie Parker which was recorded in 1973 and released on the Muse Records, Muse label.Camden, 1973–81) ;With

Hilton Ruiz Hilton Ruiz (May 29, 1952 – June 6, 2006) was an American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player. He was of Puerto Rican descent. Biography Born in New York City, Ruiz began playing piano at the age of f ...

* '' Excition'' (SteepleChase, 1977) * '' Steppin' Into Beauty'' (SteepleChase, 1977

982 Year 982 ( CMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Emperor Otto II (the Red) assembles an imperial expeditionary force at Taranto, and proceeds along the gulf coas ...

With

Shirley Scott Shirley Scott (March 14, 1934 – March 10, 2002) was an American jazz organist. Her music was noted for its mixture of bebop, blues, and gospel elements. She was known by the nickname "Queen of the Organ". Life and career Scott was born in P ...

* '' Happy Talk'' (Prestige, 1962) * '' Drag 'em Out'' (Prestige, 1963) With

* ''

Bemsha Swing This is a list of compositions by jazz musician Thelonious Monk. 0-9 52nd Street Theme A contrafact based loosely on rhythm changes in C, and was copyrighted by Monk under the title "Nameless" in April 1944. The tune was also called "Bip Bop" b ...

'' (Blue Note, 1986

997 Year 997 ( CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first child of the emperor, but because of the power stru ...

With

* '' Horace-Scope'' (1960) * '' Doin' the Thing'' (1961) * Silver's Serenade (1963) * '' Song for My Father'' (1963) With

* '' Pow!'' (Prestige, 1965

967 Year 967 ( CMLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Emperor Otto I (the Great) calls for a council at Rome, to present the new government under Pope John XIII. He ...

* ''

Constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

'' (Cobblestone, 1972) * ''Keeper of the Flame'' (Camden, 1971–73) * '' The Champ'' (1973) ;With

Buddy Tate George Holmes "Buddy" Tate (February 22, 1913 – February 10, 2001) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Tate was born in Sherman, Texas, United States, and first played the alto saxophone. According to the website All Ab ...

* ''

Groovin' with Buddy Tate ''Groovin' with Buddy Tate'' is an album by saxophonist Buddy Tate which was recorded in 1961 and released on the Swingville label.Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand'' (Chiaroscuro, 1977) with

With John Wright * '' Makin' Out'' (Prestige, 1961)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Roy 1938 births 2005 deaths American jazz drummers Drummers from Detroit Muse Records artists Enja Records artists Detroit Institute of Technology alumni 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Jazz musicians from Michigan 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians M'Boom members