Caughey Roberts (August 25, 1912 – December 15, 1990) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

player, best known for his time in the

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Orchestra in the 1930s. He was born in

Boley, Oklahoma Boley is a town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,184 at the 2010 census, a gain of 5.2 percent from the figure of 1,126 recorded in 2000. Boley was incorporated in 1905 as a predominantly Black pioneer town with pe ...

,Fourteen Census of the United States, 1920 https://archive.org/details/14thcensusofpopu1478unit later moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He played both

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

and alto sax, and

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

. During the early-1930s, he was a music band teacher at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles.Jazz High by Kirk Silsbee - LA CityBeat Magazine, September 13–19, 200

/ref> He later joined

Buck Clayton Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton (November 12, 1911 – December 8, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong, first hearing the record "Confessin' That I Love You" ...

’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 Henry Franklin "Buster" Smith (August 24, 1904 – August 10, 1991), also known as Professor Smith, was an American jazz alto saxophonist and mentor to Charlie Parker.Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/artic ...

in the Count Basie Orchestra, leaving in 1942 when he was replaced by

Earle Warren Earle Warren (born Earl Ronald Warren; July 1, 1914 – June 4, 1994) was an American saxophonist. He was part of the Count Basie Orchestra from 1937. Early life Warren was born in Springfield, Ohio, on July 1, 1914. "He played piano, banjo, and ...

. He also played in

Roy Milton Roy Bunny Milton (July 31, 1907 – September 18, 1983) was an American R&B and jump blues singer, drummer and bandleader. Career Milton's grandmother was Chickasaw. He was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and grew up on an Indian reservation bef ...

's band. Caughey was drafted into the U.S. Army on August 13, 1942. He trained at Fort Huachuca for a week and a half. He requested to go with the band assigned at Fort Huachuca, but ended up with another band at Papago Park (Prisoner-of-War Camp) sixteen miles out of Phoenix, Arizona. He was there close to four years playing in the dance band and a small combo. He was honorably discharge from the U.S. Army with the rank of Sergeant, February 1946.National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-194

and Peter Vacher, "Swingin' on Central Avenue, African American Jazz in Los Angeles, Published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, pages 141-142 In later years he played in the traditional jazz band at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

New Orleans Square New Orleans Square is a themed land found at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. Based on 19th-century New Orleans, Louisiana, the roughly three-acre area was the first land to be added to Disneyland after the park's opening, at a cost of $ ...

with

Teddy Buckner Teddy Buckner (July 16, 1909 in Sherman, Texas – September 22, 1994 in Los Angeles, California) was an American jazz trumpeter associated with Dixieland music. Early in his career Buckner played with Sonny Clay. He worked with Buck Clayton ...

and others. Clora Bryant, ''Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles'', University of California Press, 1999
/ref> He died in Los Angeles in 1990 at the age of 78. Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Count Basie
/ref>

Discography

With

*''

The Original American Decca Recordings ''The Original American Decca Recordings'' (also released as ''The Complete Decca Recordings'') is a 1992 compilation 3-CD set of sessions led by jazz bandleader Count Basie recorded for the Decca label between 1937 and 1939. Reception For Allm ...

'' (GRP, 1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Caughey 1912 births 1990 deaths American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists People from Tuskegee, Alabama 20th-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Alabama 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians