Roger Humphries
Drums
82 age
January 30, 1944 Birthday
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. Birthplace
rogerhumphriesband.com Website
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About
Roger Humphries is a jazz drummer, bandleader, and educator who has been a cornerstone of Pittsburgh's jazz scene for over six decades. A child prodigy who began playing drums at age three, he rose to national prominence on Horace Silver's landmark 1964 album Song for My Father, one of the best-selling jazz records of all time. He recorded two more albums with Silver and toured with Ray Charles' big band before returning to Pittsburgh to raise his family. In 1972, he founded the R.H. Factor, a quintet that remains active today, and later assembled the Roger Humphries Big Band. His collaborators include Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Joe Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, George Benson, and Nancy Wilson. He taught percussion at Pittsburgh CAPA for over thirty years and in 2025 was named a recipient of the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Jazz Legacies Fellowship.
Trivia
Humphries never received a formal drum lesson in his life, learning entirely by listening and observation. When he auditioned for Ray Charles, he confessed he couldn't read music — Charles hired him anyway after hearing him play. In 2024, Pittsburgh renamed East Jefferson Street as "Roger Humphries Way" in his honor. Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley has called him "the greatest drummer in the world." At age four, legendary Pittsburgh Courier photographer Teenie Harris captured him behind a drum kit — the image is now part of the Carnegie Museum's Teenie Harris Archive.
Early Life
Roger Humphries was born on January 30, 1944, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the youngest of ten children in a musical family. His uncles Frank and Hildred Humphries were professional jazz musicians, and his older brothers Lawrence and Norman also played. He gravitated to the drums at age three and a half, and by four was sitting in with the Tab Smith Big Band through his uncle's connections. Art Blakey, a fellow Pittsburgh native, became an early mentor, putting the young Humphries on stage at the Crawford Grill around age twelve. He attended Allegheny High School while performing professionally in Pittsburgh's Hill District jazz clubs and turned professional at fourteen. By sixteen he was leading his own ensemble at Carnegie Music Hall. In 1964, he moved to New York to audition for Horace Silver, who recalled, "When I heard him play, I knew right away that he was the drummer for us."
Roger Humphries Solos
1964
Drums solo - The Natives Are Restless Tonight - 1964
4/4 swing in G minor at 299 BPM
Drums solo - The Kicker - 1964
4/4 swing in Bâ™ major at 271 BPM