Name Caughey Roberts Role Musical Artist | Died December 1990 | |
Similar People Teddy Buckner, Herschel Evans, Earle Warren, Walter Page, Dicky Wells | ||
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, 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. He later joined Buck Clayton’s 14-piece jazz ensemble (known as the Harlem Gentlemen). 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. After returning from Shanghai, he replaced Buster Smith in the Count Basie Orchestra, leaving in 1937 when he was replaced by Earle Warren. 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. In later years he played in the traditional jazz band at Disneyland's New Orleans Square with Teddy Buckner and others.
He died in Los Angeles in 1990 at the age of 78.
Discography
With Count Basie