Also this issue: Musical Chairs Queens of the Stone Age should have a revolving door on their tour bus. -Sam Adams Strong Man The Weakerthans’ John Samson likes humans. -Chris Parker Zod Records Tour -A.D. Amorosi Phil Markowitz -Nate Chinen Le Tigre -Patrick Rapa

August 29-September 4, 2002

musicpicks

Mickey Roker Quartet

Every hometown has a hero, and in Philly there's no better candidate for the job than Mickey Roker. The drumming dean of Ortlieb's is a keen elder in the Philly jazz community; only Bootsie Barnes has schooled a comparable stable of talent. Roker's own career includes heavy lifting with the likes of Dizzy, Sonny, Horace and Herbie -- along with fellow Philadelphians Lee Morgan and Shirley Scott. This Thursday he salutes Charlie Parker, one of the few giants who got away (he died a few years before the drummer hit the scene). Over the weekend, it's bop of a more contemporary variety, as Roker's quartet welcomes tenorman Ralph Bowen -- Rutgers University jazz head and one of the most underrated saxophonists around. Bowen's new disc Soul Proprietor (Criss Cross) is a thinking-man's hard-bop manifesto. There's no telling what sort of sparks will fly when he and Roker dig in.

Thu., Aug. 29, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., Mickey Roker Quartet celebrates the music of Charlie Parker; Fri. and Sat., Aug. 30 and 31, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., Ralph Bowen, tenor sax, with the Mickey Roker Quartet, Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus, 847 N. Third St., 215-922-1035.

—Nate Chinen

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