Howard Roberts

Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician.

Early life Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 — a Gibson manufactured $18 Kalamazoo student model acoustic given to him by his parents at Christmas. He took lessons from Horace Hatchett, who commented to Roberts' father that Roberts, at the age of 15, "... has his own style of playing and there's nothing else I can show him. He plays better than I do." By the time he was 15, he was playing professionally locally, predominantly blues-based music, where he learned from a number of black musicians, trumpeter Art Farmer being among that group. 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. At the time Roberts and his close friend and roommate, guitarist Howard Heitmeyer, would start their day by practicing 3 or 4 hours, catch an afternoon movie, returning to practice until they went to the clubs in the evening. 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. The albums Roberts made for Capitol were done for scale, he never received any additional remuneration on their sales. He recorded 11 albums with Capitol before signing with ABC Records/Impulse! Records.

Between these two guitars, and a few others that Roberts used, his playing can be heard as the lead guitar on the theme from The Twilight Zone as well as acoustic and electric guitar on I Love Lucy, The Munsters, Bonanza, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Green Acres, Get Smart, Batman, Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith, Peter Gunn, Lost in Space, Dragnet, The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, The Odd Couple, Dick Van Dyke, I Dream of Jeannie, and the theme for the film Bullitt. He recorded with Georgie Auld, Peggy Lee, Eddie Cochran, Jody Reynolds, Shelley Fabares, Dean Martin, the Monkees, Roy Clark, Chet Atkins, Jimmy Smith, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys and the Electric Prunes.

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. He did not get along well with Spector, as evidenced by his walking out on a session where Spector had fired his pistol into the ceiling, telling Spector to not call him again. Hal Blaine noted in Denny Tedesco's documentary, The Wrecking Crew, that Roberts was the only person he had ever seen walk out on a date. 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.

Awards and honors In 2007, Howard Roberts and other members of the Wrecking Crew were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Guitars Howard Roberts' main instrument was a Gibson ES-150 purchased from Herb Ellis. He designed a guitar with C.M.I. production designer and clinician Andy Nelson in 1962. Howard Roberts worked with Epiphone and Gibson to create several signature guitars. In 1962, Howard Roberts endorsed Epiphone and later the Epiphone Howard Roberts model was introduced, this guitar being a modified Gibson L-4 based loosely on the design submitted by Roberts and Nelson.