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Hi Guys,
Any love for Howard's work on the forum? I've always known his name and a few tracks but I bought his The Very Best Of Howard Roberts CD and I just love his upbeat, bluesy, swinging style. He's got a real skip in his step.
I thought it was just Kenny Burrell with that real bluesy double stop style but Howard seems pretty adept and this style too.
Here's the album, a bargain at three time the price.
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07-27-2012 06:57 AM
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Howard Roberts was one my first heroes. As a kid I went into a music store (where they sold instruments, sheet music, and records with "listening rooms") and asked if there were any recordings of good guitar players. The guy behind the counter said "check this one out, kid". It was "Howard Roberts is a Dirty Guitar Player". I thought he was great. I tried for a long time to imitate his sound and style. Turns out the guy behind the counter was Howard Roberts' cousin.
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Hey, William, "Howard Roberts is a Dirty Guitar Player" was the first record of his I had too. It was nowhere near new at the time. The owner of a music store asked me one day if I'd ever listened to Howard Roberts. I told him I knew who he was but that was about it. He recommended that record, I found it somewhere cheap, bought it, played it and thought, "wow, this guy can play." Then later, "And you know, he never OVER-plays." Rare, rare combination.
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This same music owner had a sign in his shop that read, "guitar solos cannot exceed 16 bars." Although I'm a guitar player (-duh), I thought that was funny.
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Yup big fan of Howard Roberts I remember my buddy turning me onto H.R. is a Dirty Guitar Player. I later attended some of the Howard Robert's Seminars he did which was the beginning stages of creating GIT (later renamed MI). I remember Howard sending me info about the first GIT class and wish I had gone, but a few years later I did. Howard was very interested in how people learn information and a lot of GIT was based on that. He was a great guy to just sit a and talk with not a topic he hadn't read up on. Howard son Jay has a guitar school and some cool Youtubes of Jay playing.
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Hi William,
Originally Posted by WilliamScott
iTunes don't seem to have that album but looking at the track list I think most of it is on The Very Best of... that I bought.
Tunes like Turista and Whatever's Fair have already inspired my playing.
Great cover of Michelle by the Beatles as well. Reminds me of Sunny for some reason. Similar melody.
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That's interesting. I check out some of Jay's clips. Originally Posted by docbop
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That's a good cross section of Howard's Capitol recordings. However the way to hear Howard is on The Real Howard Roberts, Good Pickin's, Mr. Roberts Plays Guitar and two records that he did with "The Magic Band" live at Donte's.
The cool thing about Howard's Capitol stuff is that it got a lot of guys into jazz guitar simply by creating fairly short blues based masterpieces. But to me those other records are worth searching out. Usually you can find them on Amazon.
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Originally Posted by Flyin' Brian
Thanks for the pointers Brian. Yes, the words 'Jazz Lite' might apply to the compilation. But they're just cool tasteful short tunes. It's nice and easy to hear what's going on.
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Hi SMP,
Back in '67, as a college Freshman & new member of the jazz band, I was asked by the director to come up with a solo for our upcoming concert. I had just purchased Howard's "Jaunty- Jolly" album, & fell in love with his version of "If She Walked Into My Life". After many hours of practice & resetting the needle, I was able to" play along".....Did a quick chart for piano, bass & drums for accompaniment.The audience loved it, and I still tinker with that arrangement to this day - it's timeless !!!!!!!
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This book is full of transcriptions of HR recordings.
Amazon.com: Mel Bay Jazz Guitar Styling of Howard Roberts (9780786674091): Mitch Holder & Patty Roberts: Books
and this series has some great info in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Praxis-System-...howard+roberts
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Chip, Originally Posted by Chip
You and I were both freshmen in 1967. Sounds like you were in a good musical environment. The band I was in that year acted like I wanted to do Sun Ra when I suggested working out some Howard Roberts tunes. "Nobody listens to that stuff". Instead we worked out "Expressway to Your Heart" and other such classics.
Bill
we did get gigs, though.
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The thing I find unusual about Howard Roberts is that he had a mastery of how he placed notes against the beat that was much closer to the average sax player than the average guitar player. He could play behind, on and ahead of the beat with great freedom - sometimes changing it up in mid phrase while always landing on his feet like a cat at the conclusion. He doesn't move me much emotionally but he sure had a happy, bluesy, hipster sound that's very enjoyable.
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Nice selection. Hoe down and Li'l Darling, as well as Cute from Something's Cooking are great.
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you should search for his books..both method and chops books...
super chops...the howard roberts chord melody system..the howard roberts guitar book...and howard roberts is a dirty guitar player....
out of print no doubt but you may find them if you search for them on the net..
I have gone through all four in years past...all great books from a wonderful player...I also have a picture of howard and joe pass together playing...I have not searched for any info on the pic..I just have in on my studio wall...
time on the instrument...pierre
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Howard was a good friend and one of the nicest and smartest people I have ever met. I spent a couple of years with him before G.I.T. was started. I designed the first "learning modules" for G.I.T. and was rewarded with free admission for the first class of 1977-78. I honestly believe he was a musical genius. His ear was excellent and he never ran out of ideas for musical lines and he often demonstrated how he could listen to a song once and immediately play it on a guitar. Also his teaching methods were modern, in-depth and easy to understand. He taught me many musical concepts but the most valuable thing I learned from him came to me when he interviewed each of us prior to graduation from G.I.T. His comment to me was "Howard, You will never need another guitar teacher because you are able to be your own teacher." He hit the nail on the head, I have attended a few master classes but really don't need a teacher to learn musical things I am interested in. Yes, Howard was a major influence for me in terms of an approach to learning music.
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HR is my favorite guitar player. And, yes, his time was so fluid! Originally Posted by AndyV
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Besides his faultless chops and great time feel, Howard also had a livelier sound than most jazzers of the time, crisp highs and a bit of reverb, which always stuck with me, even into my nylon-string jazz playing. A great master.
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Thanks for the link. And thanks to Amazon for their super generous 46 page preview. I feel I've read all the text in that book. Great article on the gear he used as well. Originally Posted by Flyin' Brian
It's nice hear all your stories. I must search out some of the books. I'm sure I'd enjoy them.
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I guess I got to GIT about six years after you, Howie, and I went mostly because of Howard.
I agree about Howard being one of the smartest guys I've ever met. Even if he couldn't play, he still would have been something special--as a teacher, instructional designer, life philosopher. I wish I could have gotten to know him a bit, but I was just one of a couple hundred guitar players and way out of my depth. Still am. But I consider HR one of the heroes, for sure.
Years ago, I sent a couple recordings I made on a cassette boombox (this was circa 1983! Where were the digital MD recorders when I needed them?) of Howard giving a class or seminar at GIT to Mike Evans, who runs that great Howard tribute website. Howard's wife Patty out of the blue one day sent me a note of thanks and three of Howard's personal picks. I was floored by her gracious gesture! I keep a couple mounted in a framed album on the wall and one just to marvel at from time to time. She said be careful around flame -- the picks are apparently made of acetate and may be quite flammable!
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Thank you flat, your post brings back some very pleasant memories. I have a white pick that Howard gave me when I was working on picking technique at G.I.T. It doesn't have his name on it but it is the same size, thickness and shape as the one in your picture. I use a different pick now with holes in it to keep it from slipping when I play.
wiz
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My pleasure, Howie. Those were some good old days for me too, and the older I get, the more I enjoy thinking about them, the more grateful I feel that I got the chance to have them--and the more I miss them. The nostalgia is almost visceral sometimes.
The white pick in the album frame arrived years ago snapped into two pieces, so I glued it together and stuck it in the frame. Some concern about brittleness has made me hesitant to ever try the other ones. (Oh well, I prefer a larger pick anyway. When I use one, which is rare.)
Cheers,
Tim
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Lots of HR info here:
Howard Roberts - Jazz Guitarist
DGLast edited by daveg; 07-30-2012 at 05:32 AM.
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Flat, I love that you refer to Howard Roberts as an 'instructional designer,' because that's exactly what he did at GIT, create and implement instructional design. Learning modules! Robert Mager! Objectives! That's the stuff.
I have Bachelor degrees in jazz guitar performance, music education, and a Master's in instructional design. It was so rewarding to study ID because I finally solved the mystery of where Howard was coming from in his books and at GIT, even if it take years. It also made it very clear to me why my college jazz guitar lessons were such a frustrating and expensive waste of time.
I'll try to expand on this in future posts to the site.
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Please do! This is a very interesting topic. Originally Posted by tibbils
wiz
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