Conference napalm::guitar

    Larry,
    
    	I have "The Real Howard Roberts", and "Howard Roberts Plays
    Guitar". I know that you have a beat up copy of The real HR, but
    if you want to copy mine, I have a perfect copy. The other album
    is kind of strange, ie. He has strings (violins, etc) in the back-
    groung throughout the album. I think I may have brought it over
    your house the time I came over.
         
    	I looked through the record catalogues in Strawberry one time
    to see what was available for Howard Roberts albums. I ended up
    ordering the 2 albums that I have, but found the rest were out of
    print. You may be able to find them in used record stores, but they
    will probably be tough to locate.
    
    	I have noticed that you have been getting into the various notes
    files lately. I have been writing into notes files a lot the past
    year. Lately, I find the notes are getting a little less interesting
    than they used to be. Most of the really interesting subjects have
    already been covered, and the good notes are buried beneath 500 other
    notes. I just hope this conference doesn't end up getting hacked
    up the way that Music notes has been. They are upto Music_V3 now,
    with 2 old music notes files archived. The best way to avoid this
    is for people to avoid writing garbage notes into the notes file
    needlessly. It would be nice if the moderator could just go through
    and thin the conference out by deleting a lot of the day to day stuff,
    which is not of general interest to the entire conference.
                                                             
        Let me know if you are interested in the 2 albums I have.
    
    
    	Take care and keep in touch,
    
    	Mark Jacques

    One good thing about living in the Boston area; there are LOTS
    of good used record shops (sort of makes up for all the other crap
    we have to put up with).  With a little perseverance, you should
    be able to find any out of print stuff you want and usually at bargain
    prices too.  I recommend Stereo Jack's in Cambridge and Looney
    Tunes in Boston for starters; look in the Yellow Pages, there are
    plenty more.

    /rick

    Roy Clark was being interviewed on TV, and was asked about his
    versatility, specifically the differences between playing jazz and
    country music -
    
    "Jazz is just down-home pickin' with the mistakes left in."

    re: -.1
    
    This is why Roy Clark's name never comes up when discussing great
    jazz guitarists.
    
    Danny W.

    I knew there was a reason I liked old Roy...

    The new GP had two shocks in store for me. The first was
    pleasant--opening to the back and seeing that lovely "Mary Kaye" Strat.
    I'm not even a Strat fan, but that's one that could make me change my
    mind.
    
    My smile soon disappeared when I turned to the front and saw that
    Howard Roberts died in June. I was not aware of this and found it
    surprising that I had not seen it in the national media, for while
    Howard hasn't exactly been as well-known recently as, say, Slim
    Whitman, he was a very popular player in the '50's and early '60's, had
    some relatively successful records as a leader, and has been on
    thousands of records as a sideman.
    
    I've never considered Howard a jazz player, although he's done some
    nice jazz records. He's just been one of the most versatile,
    technically proficient players for 40 years--and yet another of
    my childhood idols. My favorite records of his include "The Real Howard
    Roberts", "Spinning Wheel" and one of movie theme songs done in a nice
    jazzy manner, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Howard wrote
    a column for many years for GP and has published several useful guitar
    instruction books.
    
    He's also responsible for one of the most unusual guitars around, the
    Epiphone (and later Gibson) Howard Roberts, based on the ES-175, but
    with an oval soundhole, floating pickup and 25.5" scale. These are
    great guitars and under priced on today's vintage market. Strangely
    enough, I've been playing an HR Artist a lot for the last few months.
    Coincidence?  I think...so.
    
    I have an interesting HR souvenir--his ID card from a NAMM show some
    years ago. He gave it to me after I accosted him on the way out and
    told him how great he was. Although I have not come across a recent HR
    recording, and don't know how actively he's been playing, somehow the
    world seems different to me without him.
    
    
    Danny W.
    

    Re Larry,
    
    I agree with you and Danny W: HR was a tasty player.  I remember the
    day I found out who he was: I asked my guitar teacher the name of the
    guy who played the _Twilight Zone_ theme: Howard Roberts.  Ever since
    then, he's been a favorite.
    
    Cause of death was reportedly prostate cancer at age 63.

    re: .10
    
    Although HR could have played The TZ theme, I'm pretty sure it was
    originally done by TT--Tommy Tedesco.
    
    Danny W.

    Well, I'm half right--according to TT's GP column in the 7/83 issue, TT
    played on TZ The Movie, but found out the original music wasn't done in
    Hollywood, but was from France! Whoever the guitarist was, it wasn't HR
    (I've had people tell me it was Tony Mottola, Bobby Bain and Mundell
    Lowe also, and in each case, they knew someone who knew for sure--thus
    are musical urban legends born)
    
    BTW, the album of HR's I couldn't name is called "All-Time Great
    Instrumental Hits".
    
    Danny W.

    According the requiem article in this month's GP, HR *did* play the
    theme to TZ.  Just contributing to the legend, I guess.

    I'm also bummed to hear of Howard's death. Actually, Larry V is the
    guy that turned me onto HR. "The Real Howard Roberts" is one of  my 
    favorite jazz albums. I have heard that Howard Roberts played on
    most of the Monkey's records back in the 60's. 
    
    Not to change the subject but Danny mentioned the Mary Kay Strat. 
    The originals Mary Kay models are very rare, the chances of finding
    one are almost nill. However, Fender recently re-issued the Mary
    Kay model. I'm not sure if it was issued by the custom shop, or 
    if it was a regular catalog item. EU Wurlitzer in Worcester had
    one a while back. I'm sure you could locate one if you really
    wanted to. Food for thought.
    
    I'll have to pull out my old Howard Roberts albums at home, and
    give a listen in memory of the great one. 
    
    Mark