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Howard Roberts “Antelope Freeway” (1971)

From the earliest days of electronic gimmickry and 16-track, 2″ recording comes this fusion curiosity, replete with all sorts of quaint psychedelic touches that were probably intended to garner radio airplay in some better world than this. As I recall, the reviewer in Down Beat burned poor Howard Roberts at the stake. A pity, because this fun recording has all sorts of great blues-inflected jazz-guitar showcases, humorous tangents, and audiophile sound effects to recommend it—assuming your tastes run to concluding an acoustic guitar transition with a stereo-panned motorcycle zooming through your living room. While it’s something of a stretch, at many points Antelope Freeway suggests Edgard Varèse’s use of processed tape effects and found sounds to create a spiky aural collage. A closer antecedent is the Firesign Theatre, whose influence is self-evident in “Five Gallons of Astral Flash Could Keep You Up for Thirteen Weeks,” a hilarious sendup of late-night journeys down the radio dial. None of this would mean a damn if it weren’t for a dynamic Record Plant multitrack recording, a hard-grooving Bitches Brew-lite rhythm section, and Roberts’ devoutly funky phrasing on such virtuoso workouts as “Sixteen Track Firemen” and “Roadwork”—or, in a luminously lyrical mood, on the Echoplexed harmonic balladry of “Dark Ominous Clouds” and “Santa Clara River Bottom.” —Chip Stern

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