Album Reviews

Underrated and anonymously well-exposed, the Los Angeles session guitarist Howard Roberts played for everyone from Frank, to Elvis, the Beach Boys, the Jackson 5, the Monkees and Dean Martin, to name but a few. That's Howard out front on "The Twilight Zone" theme song, among many others. The guy got around.

Underrated and anonymously well-exposed, the Los Angeles session guitarist Howard Roberts played for everyone from Frank, to Elvis, the Beach Boys, the Jackson 5, the Monkees and Dean Martin, to name but a few. That's Howard out front on "The Twilight Zone" theme song, among many others. The guy got around.

He also got around to recording some great underexposed but well-appreciated by the few, solo albums for Capitol including this one on which he's backed by the equally great  Earl Palmer on drums and Chuck Berghofer on double bass. Berghofer played on everything from Love Forever Changes to Lumpy Gravy to Ry Cooder's Jazz to Ernie Ford Sings About Jesus. Listing Palmer's credits could take days. Organist Burkley Kendrix ("an exciting Howard Roberts discovery) plays a juicy, playful Hammond B-3 here but seemed to have hit a dead end with this album.

The group lays down relaxing funky groove after relaxing funky groove on a series of jazz faves like Neal Hefti's "Li'l Darlin'" Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump", then young Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" and the Ellington-Strayhorn classic "Satin Doll. Add a few standards and some then new and hip Bossa-Novas, including one by Roberts and you have an album that goes down oh, so easy and pleasantly.

All that's missing in terms of atmospherics is a bar crowd murmur. That's the vibe, with these four guys having a blast running through these tunes. While a few of the jazz obscurities revived by Euphoria are probably best appreciated by jazz guitar connoisseurs, this short set has broad musical appeal. The grooves are comfortable, the tunes familiar and the nimble Roberts amazes throughout.

If you're a fan of  the mellow-sounding hollow-bodied electric guitar sound, this album will knock you out. Speaking of "knock out," the recording produced June/July 1963 at Capitol Studio "A" is, to borrow a phrase from Neil Sedaka "ear-delicious."  It's warm, wet, ultra-three-dimensional and like jumping into a vat of warm chocolate or something like that. The recording of Burghofer's stand-up bass is notably tactile, deep and unusually well-articulated.

The album's vibe captures well the optimistic, "America's coasting in fourth gear" vibe  at the time before Kennedy was shot. Robert's guitar feels almost as if it's in your lap

The 180g Rainbo pressing is excellent and the Sundazed price tag of $18.98 makes this irresistible.

Highly recommended, even if it's your first and only jazz quartet record led by a session man. That would be a shame since there are so many other great ones. But's that's for another time.