Tucker, Mickey

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Tucker, Mickey

Tucker, Mickey, one of many to suffer from a lack of name recognition and critical acclaim, this pianist is a supremely talented mainstream player who also happens to be an accomplished composer and organ player; b. Durham, N.C., April 28,1941. Mickey Tucker’s highly developed harmonic sense and crystal-clear tone put him on par with just about any other pianist of his generation. Since taking up the piano while in his teens, he has worked as a school teacher, an arranger for the R&B group Little Anthony and the Imperials, and appeared with a lengthy list of jazz artists, including Roland Kirk, Willis Jackson, Art Blakey, Eric Kloss, and Sonny Fortune. During the 1970s, he toured Africa and Europe with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and recorded several times for the Xanadu and Muse labels (sadly, all of these are currently unavailable). The next decade found him working with the newly revived Farmer/ Golson Jazztet before taking up residence in Australia. Not as often recorded as he should be, he has lately been leading sessions for SteepleChase Records that rank among the finest work of his career.

Discography

Blues in Five Dimensions (1989); Hang in There (1991); Sweet Lotus Lips (1993).

—Chris Hovan

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