Bud Shank

Howard Roberts, a prolific jazz guitarist who once estimated that he had been heard on more than 2,000 long-playing recordings in a 10-year period, is dead of prostate cancer. His family announced Tuesday night that the virtuoso guitarist--who backed stars ranging from Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to The Beach Boys and the Monkees in studio recordings--died Sunday in a Seattle hospital. He was 62.

The father of Bossa Nova, guitarist Laurindo Almeida, will donate more than 1,000 items from his personal collection of original scores and vellum copies of his compositions to Cal State Northridge. Also noted for the film scores he composed for "The Godfather" and "The Unforgiven," Almeida is widely recognized for introducing Brazilian music to this country by developing in the '50s what he calls "an amalgam of samba and jazz" that later evolved into the Bossa Nova.

Movies "Notting Hill," a romantic comedy, features Hugh Grant as a bookstore owner whose life is turned upside down when the world's biggest movie star (Julia Roberts--who else?) enters his store. It opens in general release Friday. Theater La Jolla Playhouse presents the West Coast premiere of "Oo-Bla-Dee," Regina Taylor's new play about members of an all-female African American jazz band who must redefine their professional and personal roles as World War II ends and the soldiers return home.

The fourth season of the Henry Mancini Institute's annual free concert series kicked off with an all-star bash Saturday night at Royce Hall. Always one of the highlights of the summer music season, the opening event showcased the series' most attractive qualities: an impressive lineup of guest performers and the spirited performances of a gifted, 80-piece orchestra of young musicians. The guests were trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard and saxophonist David Sanchez.

As guitarist Kenny Burrell stood on the stage of the Jazz Bakery recently, playing a bubbling version of Blue Mitchell's "Funji Mama," drum mer Sherman Ferguson sat behind him, firm yet not rigid, smiling as he provided an array of pulsating drum beats that made the number dance.

Jazz thrived in Southern California beginning in 1945, when clubs on Central Avenue and in Hollywood were presenting such greats as Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Nat King Cole. Business stayed strong until the late '50s, when the number of happening clubs began to dwindle to a handful and the West Coast jazz scene began to dry up. "It was great," recalls Bill Holman, who was active during the '50s as a composer, arranger, tenor saxophonist and bandleader.

Bill Perkins, a versatile saxophonist best known as a popular soloist in the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman big bands in the 1950s, has died. He was 79. A leading figure on the West Coast jazz scene for more than four decades, Perkins died Saturday of cancer at his home in Sherman Oaks, according to his family. Born in San Francisco, Perkins spent the first several years of his life in Chile, where his father was working as a mining engineer.

These days, we have become so inured to the Latin-tinged sound of the classical guitar that we are more likely to associate its music with car commercials than with the concert hall. But when Laurindo Almeida first came to United States from Brazil in 1947, the guitar was considered a simple instrument capable of producing only simple chords. Almeida was largely responsible for introducing Americans to the popular classical guitar repertoire.

Ask alto saxophonist/producer/composer Pat Britt why he plays jazz and his face lights up. "When everything's going right with a good rhythm section, there's nothing like it," he said. "You can kind of do what you want within a structure. It's like freedom." Britt has played with more than a few bands in his 29-year career as a jazz musician.

7:30pm Music The California Philharmonic, conducted by founder Victor Vener, continues its outdoor series at the Arboretum of L.A. County with a program called "Hollywood Stars," featuring film scores by James Horner, John Williams and John Corigliano. Soloist in Corigliano's "Red Violin" is Elizabeth Pitcairn. Featured players in the premiere of Roger Allen Ward's "Music for Percussion and Orchestra": the orchestra's entire percussion section.