Howard Roberts was born on October 2, 1929 in Phoenix, Arizona and taught himself to play the guitar at the age of seven. When he was twelve years old, he was studying with Horace Hatchett, who influenced Roberts to listen to and appreciate the full spectrum of guitar music, from classics to jazz. He then studied guitar finger style technique for a time with classical guitarist Howard Heitmeyer and later studied the Schillinger system with Fabian Andre. During World War II, Howard played guitar professionally in the Phoenix area, gaining significant experience.

In 1950, Howard Roberts moved to Los Angeles. Immediately upon his arrival, he went to hear jazz guitar legend Barney Kessel perform with Dave Brubeck at The Hague jazz club in Los Angeles. During the evening, Kessel introduced him to guitarist Jack Marshall, who was also in the audience. With Marshall’s help, Roberts soon established himself as one of the leading studio guitarists in Los Angeles. Over the next twenty years, Howard was featured on literally countless recordings and on many film and television soundtracks.

In the early 1970s he ended up being genuinely concerned with teaching and began to appear in many guitar workshops throughout the United States. He then formed his own publishing company called Playback Publishing Company. In association with other guitarists, including Jimmy Stewart, Howard Roberts wrote and published a number of excellent jazz guitar books covering improvisation and chord melody solos. He co-founded the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) with Pat Hicks in 1976.

With the help and guidance of Howard Roberts, GIT became one of the most respected educational establishments for guitarists in the world. Roberts also became involved in the design and construction of guitars. Epiphone Guitar Company produced its first Howard Roberts model in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, the Gibson Guitar Company, having purchased Epiphone Guitar Company, released a new variation of the initial model as part of the line of Gibson guitars.

Howard Roberts always had an interest in jazz and was very active in helping to develop the famous 1966 “jazz guitar night” at Donte’s club in Los Angeles. For many years, Roberts performed with many jazz artists, including Shorty Rogers, Buddy De Franco, Pete Jolly, Bud Shank, Bill Holman, Bob Cooper, Al Haig, Chico Hamilton, Gerry Mulligan, Oliver Nelson, Bobby Troup, and Dave Grusin. . In 1965 he won the “New Star” award from Downbeat magazine and then went on to write an excellent monthly column for several years for Guitar Player magazine.

Several of his later recordings reveal him as a jazz-rock fusion guitarist, however his earlier recordings established him as one of the best jazz guitarists overall, following the tradition established by jazz guitar pioneer Charlie Christian. . In the last years before his death from prostate cancer in 1992, Howard Roberts began traveling the world teaching and playing jazz guitar. He has left guitarists around the world with an important legacy of educational jazz guitar books and recordings.