Biography of Howard Roberts

Howard Roberts led an intense musical life from an early age, jamming and gigging in funky nightclubs and devoting himself to serious practice and study. Breaking into the Los Angeles studio scene in 1950, he had played on thousands of jazz, rock, and pop records by the early 70s. In his own creative work, he mastered a style combining the "funky" feel of a blues-based organ trio sound with glittering melodic speed and an advanced harmonic imagination. This impressive and very listenable style is heard on such albums as Howard Roberts is a Dirty Guitar Player. For someone who made so many recordings, it is ironic that his own albums are so hard to find nowadays, but the best of those are worth the search. Roberts was also well known for his monthly column in Guitar Player Magazine and as cofounder of Guitar Institute of Technology (now the Musician's Institute). ~ David Nelson McCarthy