Artist: Howard Roberts
Howard Mancel Roberts was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician.
By the time he was 15, he was playing professionally locally, predominantly blues-based music, where he learned from a number of black musicians, including trumpeter Art Farmer. In 1992 Roberts was quoted in "The Independent Newsletter" by Steve Voce saying he considered that early experience to be “the most valuable” to him in his development as a player.
In 1950, he moved to Los Angeles, California arriving with no place to live and carrying only his guitar and amp. Roberts concentrated on the ‘after hours’ scene, jamming with such players as Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Buddy DeFranco. After hearing him play one night, Roberts met Barney Kessel, which began an important and lasting friendship. It was Kessel who introduced the young Roberts to guitarist Jack Marshall, who eventually signed him to Capitol Records later on in 1963.
With the assistance of Marshall, he began working with musicians, arrangers and songwriters including Neal Hefti, Henry Mancini, Bobby Troup, Chico Hamilton, George Van Eps, and Kessel. 1952 was the year Roberts played on his first record date, Jam Session No. 10 with Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Rowles.
In 1963, Roberts recorded Color Him Funky and H.R. Is a Dirty Guitar Player, his first two albums after signing with Capitol. According to Jim Carlton writing for Vintage Guitar magazine these first two albums created a fan base that was not equaled by any other jazz guitarist at that time. After that, Roberts was referred to as simply H.R. and his albums were among the most anticipated jazz releases of the day.
As a member of the Wrecking Crew, Roberts was a part of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, playing guitar on some of the most famous songs in pop music history. From the 1960s through to around 1976 it's estimated he played on more than 2000 records and would routinely log more than 900 sessions a year for a time.
From the late 1960s, Roberts began to focus on teaching rather than recording. He traveled around the country giving guitar seminars, and wrote several instructional books. For some years he also wrote an acclaimed column called "Jazz Improvisation" for Guitar Player magazine.
Roberts developed accelerated learning concepts and techniques, which led to the founding of Playback Music Publishing and the Guitar Institute of Technology. In 1977, he co-founded the Musicians Institute in Hollywood.
In 2007, Howard Roberts and other members of the Wrecking Crew were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.
Further information about Howard Roberts is found here.
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Roberts, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Howard Roberts Concert 1986 at Musicians Institute
Howard Roberts: Videos
Howard Roberts (Rare Footage Of A True Legend) - Star Eyes
MI LONDON 1984 - Howard Roberts, Tommy Tedesco, Don Mock, Paul Farnen, Joe Porcaro, Steve Houghton.