(1893 - 1968)
| C. Luckeyth (Luckey) Roberts / Musician | (1893 - 1968) |
| Biography: | Born in Philadelphia, musician Luckey Roberts started his career in vaudeville at the age of five. A pianist, singer, and composer, he is perhaps best known for his scores for the stage and as the leader of his own orchestra. Roberts was among the early Harlem pianists who played in the "stride" piano style, transforming the characteristics of ragtime (syncopated melody and strong bass) with a stronger jazz rhythm. Stride piano of the 1920s was associated with Roberts, James P. Johnson, and Thomas "Fats" Waller, among others. Roberts played in clubs of the Tenderloin and San Juan Hill, and on the "rent party" circuit before moving up to the Harlem clubs, such as the Apollo Theater. Ethel Waters, who sang with various bands, once said "[certain bandleaders] could make you sing until your tonsils fell out. Because you wanted to sing. ...And you'd do anything and work till you dropped for such musicians. The master of them all, though, was Luckey Roberts." The bandleader made three European tours with his own orchestra and played at Town Hall in New York in 1941.
In the 1930s, Roberts and his wife, Lena, a musical comedy actress, lived at 745 St. Nicholas Avenue and then moved to 409 Edgecombe Avenue. |
| Sample Work: |  |
| Bibliography: | Anderson, 128, 131, 154. Charters and Kunstadt, 94, 274. Fox, 40. New York Times [obituary], Feb. 7, 1968, p. 47. |
