Customer Reviews

Color Him Funky: H R Is a Dirty Guitar Player

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This two-fer CD has to be one of the swingingest guitar/organ albums ever made and one of the swingingest jazz albums period. Granted, it's light jazz, but it still swings like mad. There's nothing abrasive here. It's all very accessible and easy to listen to. It's music to get happy with for sure. The tunes are all concise and to the point. Narry a wasted note anywhere. And the musicians are clearly enjoying the hell out of what they're playing, too.

Howard Roberts' virtuosity is astounding and I can't imagine a more complimentary group of side men to accompany him. Berghoffer, bass, and Palmer, drums are rock solid, steady and tasteful. The organists, Bryant and Kendrix, while different in style, mesh beautifully with Roberts' concept.

Everything works well and even a schmaltzy Days of Wine & Roses is given a fantastic, original treatment.

The cd itself is first rate. Several session photos not included in the original packages are included as are track times, recording dates, all original liner notes, photos and new liner notes by Jim Carlson. The music was remastered in stereo and the sound quality is excellent for both albums, although you will want to turn the volume up some when H.R. is a Dirty Guitar Player begins.

Although both albums are excellent, my preference is H.R. because it seems to be just a little more cohesive than Color. To me, the sign of a great album is how many times you want to listen to it. I used to play H.R. to death when I owned the mono L.P. And now with the stereo cd, I'm discovering it all over again.

So, if you want something to get you happy, it doesn't get any better than this two-fer.

Generally I tend not to pick words from other reviewers but this case is different. Mr Sadd thinks this work is excellent but dated. I want to add a brief answear in my review. If these two albums from Howard Roberts are dated I am Santa Claus. If these albums are dated the jazz history in its entirely is dated, something which obviously is not. Probbaly Mr Sadd and me have two completly different tastes in jazz. He likes J Scofield. When I heard J Scofield I tend to fall asleep, he is one of the most boring Jazz guitar player of all time in my opinion (and I know them all). I respect him, but I don't like him. If I have to pick a modern player I'd pick Joe Diorio probably. Second for me comes J McLaughlin. Certainly not Scofzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz sorry I fell asleep. =)))) The end. These two albums are absolutly stratospheric, skyscraper tall, eternal Jazz. My friends, this is some of the best music I have ever heard no matter the 7000 thousands jazz cds I own. Howard Roberts in these records is unbelievable. He stands absolutly near the greatest musicians Jazz guitar ever offered (Wes, Johnny Smith, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Jimmy rainey and many others). I totally agree with the amazon reviewer, "Howard's playing is superb, sophisticated and at times ferocious, with blistering solos that testify to the hard-driving style of this architect of the 60's West Coast Sound". I'd add that is guitar tone is superb, pure vintage 175. Buy this cd, you'll find two amazing records (they are two as a matter of fact, HR is a dirty guitar player and Color him funky) that you'll listen for a long long time. Absolutly one of the best buy you can do. 5 stars for each albums, so this cd deserves at least 10!! I really love this! Thanks Mr Howard Roberts WONDERFUL guitar player!!!!!!!!!!

Some time later .... I can't stop myself. I have to say something more about these albums (they are two, do you remember?), now that I know them by memory, note for note. I think this combination makes one of the greatest jazz guitar albums of all time. Apart from Wes Montgomery stuff that is the greatest ever, Howard with this "compilation" comes first. his playing is sublime in my opinion. Only Hank Garland and some Barney Kessel stuff from the fifties come close, but Howard is the best. There are a lot of more difficult albums than this one especially in guitar a place where auto indulgence is very common, but this one is incredibly funny and lovely and absolutly perfect in its balance between technique and heart. I am a Jazz guitar player. I listen this one almost everyday. Immense.

This combo CD is wonderful.

As virtuoso guitarist Jerry Hahn remarks in his review of another Howard Roberts CD on this website, HR was the greatest all-around guitarist who ever walked upon this earth.

This is not an opinion--it is a theorem (I am a mathematician).

The proof is short and sweet.

1. HR is on more recordings (TV, movie, and records) as a first-call LA studio guitarist than anyone except Tommy Tedesco.

2. HR was one of the greatest jazz guitar players of all time. Tommy Tedesco was not.

3. HR did more for guitar education than anyone else, by founding the Musicians' Institute in Hollywood--a world-class institution for learning any contemporary style.

Q.E.D.

It is my great good fortune to have HR's son Jay Roberts as my guitar teacher, and he is one of the greatest guitar players in the world today (search for him on youtube and you will agree), as well as a great teacher and a great guy. If you reside in the greater Seattle area, and want guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, keyboard, or harmonica instruction in any contemporary style, you should check out the Roberts Music Institute in Bellevue.

Howard Roberts was a real jazz guitarist. No fuzz boxes, no distortion or echo chambers, no special effects pedals littered across the floor like pseudo-jazz guitarists like John Scofield, who, in my opinion, must have an influential relative in the business. Not only does Scofield's alleged jazz playing sound like crude rock music with nothing more than a jazz pretense, he plays with about as much personality as a wet dish rag. He is bland. Roberts not only is a technical craftsman who plays real jazz with the proper technique, tone and style, but he has his own signature sound; whether on a great ballad like "Days of Wine and Roses" or on any of the swing tunes, he was both a master of nuance and subtlety as well as a cool, funky improviser. Roberts was the most sought-after studio guitarist of the 1950s and 60s, as well as the guitarist whose masterful playing graced the themes of dozens of popular TV shows and films in those same decades. He played fusion before the term became the description for minimally talented guitarists who wanted to play jazz but didn't have the chops to transcend the juvenile confines of rock music. Roberts played the standards as well as his own funky compositions with equal ease. When necessary, he also performed rock, blues and even some country/western. He also led some of the finest guitar-based jazz ensembles of his era. One of the greats---funky, cool, stylish and versatile. I highly recommend this two disc set.

The quality of this double album CD by Howard Roberts
is happy, uplifting, and throroughly danceable. Roberts was at his peak at the time of these recordings.

I'm a fan of Jim Mullen and John Scofield and anything in between. Howard Roberts' playing on this release is technically faultless, but his note choices while soloing, and the material itself, are not my cup of tea. It sounds dated - commercially geared towards a contemporary mass buyer - where stuff like 'Kind of Blue' does not. To a listener of the 21st century, this material sounds somewhat twee. The words 'dirty' and 'funky' have different musical connotations nowadays, and there's nothing dirty or funky here in today's terms. Likely to appeal to the older buyer who likes Chet Atkins and Les Paul. I won't give it a high rating, because I don't really like it, but I won't give it a low rating either, becausee it is excellent in its own way. Howard Roberts' educational material is superb, however, and still groundbreaking and innovative in its approach.