Howard Roberts

**monk** · 06-26-2014, 11:54 PM

Jay Roberts posted this video on YouTube. Enjoy.

**Flat** · 06-27-2014, 02:21 AM

Thanks for posting that, monk! I'm not sure, but I think I might have been in the room that day!

I was at GIT from late 1983 to early 1985. This reminds me of a "first week orientation" kinda welcome-to-the-school show Howard did. But it could have been any year, I suppose.

As great a player as Howard was, his true gift, imho, was as an educator. Absolutely brilliant, and the coolest guy in most any room.

I had Carl Schroeder for Composition & Theory. Another brilliant cat.

The good old days for me, for sure.

**pierre richard** · 06-27-2014, 08:49 AM

I heard and met Howard a long time ago at a music store where he was playing..

A great player and great person...

I have four of his books and many of other pages of hie technique and transcriptions...great stuff..

Time on the instrument...

**MarkRhodes** · 06-27-2014, 09:07 AM

I could be wrong but I think this video was posted hereabouts some time back and a brave member said something along the lines of he really didn't care for Howard's playing here---it seemed to lack cohesion. A few others said it was far from Howard's best work.

Again, I could be wrong about this being the vid. (But I'd bet a doughnut that it was the same tune, "Star Eyes.")

**mr. beaumont** · 06-27-2014, 09:29 AM

Maybe not the cleanest I've heard him play, but the ideas are great.

The mix/recording does no favors...

One of the greats, imho...and only hr could pull off that hat and indoor sunglasses. Dude was cool.

**MarkRhodes** · 06-27-2014, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

One of the greats, imho...and only hr could pull off that hat and indoor sunglasses. Dude was cool.

I love HR too. Local sax player (-recently deceased) who ran a music store saw me looking at guitar books one day years ago and asked me if I had heard Howard Roberts. At the time, I hadn't. I went out and bought "Howard Roberts Is A Dirty Guitar Player." Loved him ever since.

**mr. beaumont** · 06-27-2014, 09:52 AM

Those 45-sized tunes on records like 'dirty guitar player' and 'color him funky' are soooo good. Soooo sixties, but sooo good.

**wizard3739** · 06-27-2014, 10:39 AM

HR, without a doubt, permanently changed the way I think about jazz music. He was my friend, my mentor and my inspiration. Rest in peace, Howard.

wiz

**docbop** · 06-27-2014, 12:02 PM

Those little teacher get together and jam were a highlight of GIT for me. HR, Joe Porcaro, Bob Magnusson, and Carl Schroeder great minds in Jazz and Jazz education. Carl Schroeder taught theory and composition and later the Schroeder Improv class that students in the know start lining up for day one. I was lucky and took an elective class on playing Jazz heads can't remember the actually name. Joe Diorio was the main instructor and you played as duos of guitar or bass and guitar and just played the head of a tune trying really be musical. Joe would change octaves, add glisses, or bends, use on one string all sorts of things to be more vocal like in how you played the head. Then you would be critiqued by the all the teachers sitting in the back Joe Porcaro and Bob Magnusson. Every week playing for Diorio, Porcaro, and Magnusson was scary, but so informative.

**monk** · 06-27-2014, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

One of the greats, imho...and only hr could pull off that hat and indoor sunglasses. Dude was cool.

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Those 45-sized tunes on records like 'dirty guitar player' and 'color him funky' are soooo good. Soooo sixties, but sooo good.

Howard was very sensitive to light. He wore the shades all the time. The cap may have hidden a receding hairline. I can't say for sure because I never saw him without it. Maybe some of the HR era GIT crowd can chime in.

Music Trivia: The three minute limit on pop songs that has been the standard in radio broadcasting for years is a carry over from the days of 78 RPM records. The physical recording limit on discs at 78 RPM was three minutes. A friend commented to me a while back about how concise all the early bebop records were. Head, two or three short solos on the form and out. This is also true of big band and small group recording in the Swing Era. The reason was the physical/mechanical time limit of the recording medium. Most of the early players had to learn to be concise in their solos.

Howard's concept for all those Capitol albums harkened back to the 30s and 40s when a soloist had to make a cohesive statement in three minutes or less. At a time when many jazz artists were using the extended playing time of LPs to play longer solos, HR chose to make radio-friendly albums that got a lot of AM and FM airplay.

Howard was very popular in the 60s and early 70s with players all kinds. He was the jazz guitarist whose albums most often showed up in the record collections of rock, blues and country players as well as jazz players.

**Flat** · 06-27-2014, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by monk

The cap may have hidden a receding hairline. I can't say for sure because I never saw him without it. Maybe some of the HR era GIT crowd can chime in.

This is true, to my recollection. He'd always seem to wear a cap during a show at Donte's or wherever. Maybe not on sessions or during a more casual visit to the school for a seminar.

Originally Posted by monk

Music Trivia: The three minute limit on pop songs that has been the standard in radio broadcasting for years is a carry over from the days of 78 RPM records. The physical recording limit on discs at 78 RPM was three minutes.

I never knew that. Explains a lot. Thanks.

**monk** · 06-27-2014, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by Flat

This is true, to my recollection. He'd always seem to wear a cap during a show at Donte's or wherever. Maybe not on sessions or during a more casual visit to the school for a seminar.

I first met HR at a Gibson clinic promoting the Gibson HR Fusion in my hometown in the Summer of 1981. Hearing him play live and talking to him after the show motivated me to attend GIT in April of 1982. I never saw him at the school or anywhere public without the cap.

**wintermoon** · 06-27-2014, 02:32 PM

ok, but who's the guy w/the beard?
;^)

**MarkRhodes** · 06-27-2014, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by monk

Music Trivia: The three minute limit on pop songs that has been the standard in radio broadcasting for years is a carry over from the days of 78 RPM records. The physical recording limit on discs at 78 RPM was three minutes. A friend commented to me a while back about how concise all the early bebop records were. Head, two or three short solos on the form and out. This is also true of big band and small group recording in the Swing Era. The reason was the physical/mechanical time limit of the recording medium. Most of the early players had to learn to be concise in their solos.

I think jazz would be more popular if more of the records were only 3-4 minutes long! I think most of us have witnessed people who listen to a head with enjoyment, lose interest (and start yakking) when the solos start because they either can't follow them or don't care to. I remember asking a friend about seeing a Famous Jazz Musician at a shindig she was invited to. She said she hated jazz because it was the most selfish music ever and she couldn't understand why people who had no interest in their audiences bothered to play for audiences at all.

That silenced me. Jazz? Selfish? Well, I never! But you know, I think I know what she's getting at here....

**monk** · 06-27-2014, 03:09 PM

[QUOTE=ok, but who's the guy w/ the beard?[/QUOTE]
Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua But you already knew that I'll bet.

Originally Posted by MarkRhodes

I think jazz would be more popular if more of the records were only 3-4 minutes long! I think most of us have witnessed people who listen to a head with enjoyment, lose interest (and start yakking) when the solos start because they either can't follow them or don't care to. I remember asking a friend about seeing a Famous Jazz Musician at a shindig she was invited to. She said she hated jazz because it was the most selfish music ever and she couldn't understand why people who had no interest in their audiences bothered to play for audiences at all.

That silenced me. Jazz? Selfish? Well, I never! But you know, I think I know what she's getting at here....

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, 'No one ever lost money underestimating the attention span of the American public'.

**Flat** · 06-27-2014, 03:26 PM

And in the age of TV and Twitter, the span continues to shrink...

**SamBooka** · 06-27-2014, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by monk

Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua But you already knew that I'll bet.

mind offically blown

**MarkRhodes** · 06-27-2014, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by Flat

And in the age of TV and Twitter, the span continues to shrink...

I think this is true, but people have been bored with long jazz solos since the '50s!

I'm with Miles--a lot of players need to go to "Notes Anonymous" meetings. Mind you, I like to *play* a lot of notes, but I don't expect anyone to sit there and listen while I do! If I want people to listen, I have to play something they care to hear. For most people, that's not a lot of soloing. (Soloing is much less central to pop and rock music than it used to be too.)

**Flat** · 06-27-2014, 05:41 PM

Maybe we need a 140-note solo limit to accommodate the times.

**MarkRhodes** · 06-27-2014, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Flat

Maybe we need a 140-note solo limit to accommodate the times.

Swoosh!

**Endorphins** · 06-29-2014, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by MarkRhodes

I think jazz would be more popular if more of the records were only 3-4 minutes long! I think most of us have witnessed people who listen to a head with enjoyment, lose interest (and start yakking) when the solos start because they either can't follow them or don't care to. I remember asking a friend about seeing a Famous Jazz Musician at a shindig she was invited to. She said she hated jazz because it was the most selfish music ever and she couldn't understand why people who had no interest in their audiences bothered to play for audiences at all.

That silenced me. Jazz? Selfish? Well, I never! But you know, I think I know what she's getting at here....

She's got a point. I can practice at home.

**Greentone** · 06-29-2014, 12:22 PM

Ray Brown's bands of the 80s- 90s got this. They economized on solos and attended to audiences. No shame there.

**SamBooka** · 06-29-2014, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by Flat

Maybe we need a 140-note solo limit to accommodate the times.

Solos via twitter..

**Jabberwocky** · 07-02-2014, 03:24 AM

In honour of the great HR, a guitar Epiphone/Gibson made for him.

**wizard3739** · 07-02-2014, 04:07 AM

[QUOTE=monk;437396]Howard was very sensitive to light. He wore the shades all the time. The cap may have hidden a receding hairline. I can't say for sure because I never saw him without it. Maybe some of the HR era GIT crowd can chime in. QUOTE[:

I recall one of our morning classes at G.I.T. decided that we would all come to class wearing sunglasses. Howard started laughing and we all laughed for about 15 minutes. He was a good sport and always enjoyed a good laugh.

wiz