Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Luckey Roberts was born Charles Luckyth Roberts on August 7, 1887 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was playing piano and acting professionally with traveling Negro minstrel shows in his childhood. Settling in New York City about 1910 he became one of the leading pianists in Harlem, and started publishing some of his original rags.
Roberts toured France and the UK with James Reese Europe during World War I, then returned to New York where he wrote music for various shows and recorded piano rolls. With James P. Johnson, he developed the stride piano style of playing about 1919.
His reach on the keyboard was unusually large and Luckey could reach a fourteenth, leading to a rumor that he had the webbing between his fingers surgically cut. Those who knew him and saw him play live denounced it as false, he simply had naturally large hands with a wide finger spread.
By the 1920s Roberts teamed up with lyricist Alex C. Rogers, co-wrote three Broadway musicals, Go-Go and Sharlee in 1923, and My Magnolia in 1926, the latter starred Adelaide Hall, a major black revue star.
Hisnoted compositions include Junk Man Rag, Moonlight Cocktail, Pork and Beans, and Railroad Blues. The Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded Moonlight Cocktail, and was the best selling record in the United States for ten weeks in 1942.An astute businessman, he became a millionaire twice through real estate dealings. Pianist and composer Luckey Roberts, who recorded piano solos with Willie “the Lion “ Smith, passed away on February 5, 1968 in New York City.
