Howard Roberts - The Real Howard Roberts (1977).

Howard Roberts was well-known as an educator (he was a founder of GIT), studio musician (he clocked so many session hours as an LA studio musician that he was referred to as “The Fifth Monkey“), and as columnist for Guitar Player Magazine (Roberts and colleague Jerry Hahn practically invented the “guitar columnist“ genre). One might therefore expect this to be an album of interest primarily to aficionados of jazz guitar. In fact, The Real Howard Roberts is as accessible as any jazz album ever recorded. Even so, Roberts’ consummate musicianship is everywhere in evidence. Recorded in a single August day in Hollywood in 1977, Roberts leads a tight quartet (with the late great Ray Brown on bass) through pop tunes (a stunning version of Michael Franks’ “Lady Wants to Know“), standards (“Darn that Dream“, “Gone with the Wind“) and jazz classics (“Dolphin Dance“). There is real virtuosity on display in each cut. If you’re curious about Roberts,