Caughey Roberts
Caughey Roberts (August 25, 1912 – December 15, 1990) was an American jazz alto sax player, best known for his time in the Count Basie Orchestra in the 1930s.
He was born in Boley, Oklahoma,[1] later moving to Los Angeles. He played both baritone and alto sax, and clarinet. During the early-1930s, he was a music band teacher at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles.[2] He later joined Buck Clayton’s 14-piece jazz ensemble (known as the Harlem Gentlemen).[3] They traveled by cruise liner to Shanghai, China where they performed an extended engagement at the elegant Canidrome Ballroom. He would eventually leave Shanghai before the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War.[4][5] After returning from Shanghai, he replaced Buster Smith in the Count Basie Orchestra, leaving in 1937 when he was replaced by Earle Warren.[6] He also played in Roy Milton's band. He was in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, and was assigned as a musician to play in the all black band.[7] In later years he played in the traditional jazz band at Disneyland's New Orleans Square with Teddy Buckner and others.[8]
He died in Los Angeles in 1990 at the age of 78.[6]
Discography
With Count Basie
- The Original American Decca Recordings (GRP, 1937-39 [1992])
References
- ↑ Fourteen Census of the United States, 1920 https://archive.org/details/14thcensusofpopu1478unit
- ↑ Jazz High by Kirk Silsbee - LA CityBeat Magazine, September 13–19, 2007
- ↑ Yanow, Scott. [2000] (2000). Swing: Third Ear – The Essential Listening Companion. Backbeat Books publishing
- ↑ Jones. Andrew F. [2001] (2001). Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Duke University Press
- ↑ Buck Clayton, Nancy M. Elliott, Buck Clayton’s Jazz World. A&C Black, 1995
- 1 2 Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Count Basie
- ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
- ↑ Clora Bryant, Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1999