Luckey Roberts

Charles Luckeyeth Roberts , called Luckey Roberts, (born August 7, 1887 in Philadelphia - † February 5, 1968 in New York City ) was an American jazz, ragtime and blues pianist , composer and one of the founders of the Stride Piano style.

Roberts played piano in wandering minstrel shows as a child - his first stage appearance was when he was three as a sleeping child in performances of Uncle Tom's Cabin . From 1910 he lived in New York, where he soon became one of the leading pianists in Harlem and from 1913 published his own ragtime pieces (which, however, were always greatly simplified for publication). At first he could not read music and impressed above all with his technique, but soon he began to continue his musical education. It is considered to be one of the forefathers of the stride piano style, for which it was anatomically predestined with a reach of up to 14 keys. James P. Johnson reports that he regularly observed him in Harlem, where he played at the Barron Wilkins, before the war, and other pianists also report his influence on them, according to Earl Hines , who saw him play in Pittsburgh and always reports that several pianos were in reserve, as he could easily ruin the keys with his strong fingers. Eubie Blake called him the greatest pianist he ever heard. In 1911 his first musical was performed. In 1914, the young George Gershwin was also “apprenticed” to Roberts.

During the First World War he toured France and England with James Reese Europe (1881-1919), with whose orchestra he accompanied the dance duo of Vernon and Irene Castle even before the First World War . In 1916 he made his first recordings on piano rolls . In the 1920s he composed 14 musicals and was one of the most successful directors of "society" orchestras for the New York money aristocracy, with which he played from Newport to Palm Beach and received up to $ 1,000 a night. His orchestra played z. B. When the Duke of Windsor visited New York in 1927. He also got rich through real estate speculation, but within the Harlems he always proved to be a generous donor. In the 1930s both tried concert appearances at Carnegie Hall , where Roberts performed his "Spanish Suite" with his International Symphonic Syncopated Orchestra (with 55 musicians) in 1939 , or at New York's Town Hall . In 1940 he opened his own restaurant "Luckeys Rendezvous" with singing and dancing waiters, which he ran until 1954 (he himself was a Quaker and neither smoked nor drank). In the 1960s he completed the composition for two musicals ("Emalina", "Old Golden Brown"), but they were not performed.

His compositions include "Junk Man Rag" (1911, a hit at the time), "Moonlight Cocktail" (with which he had a hit in 1941 after he simplified his complicated rag "Ripples of the Nile"), "Pork and Beans", "Railroad Blues".

Web links

• Stride piano to Roberts