Houston Person – Saxophone (born November 10, 1934)
Houston Person is a jazz artist whose name I have seen on the JazzWeek Chart, as recently as this week. His latest release as a leader The Melody Lingers On is now at # 9. I had yet to listen to any of his music until last week. To be more specific, I listened to two albums on his birthday, November 1oth. The albums nI listened to were Something in Common from 1989 and Now’s the Time. Now’s the Time, released in 1990, was recorded with legendary bassist Ron Carter. Both albums were released on the Muse label. They were recorded at the Van Gelder Studios with Rudy Van Gelder serving as the engineer. I have listened mostly to Now’s the Time and for me it is simply an incredible album, just the two of them, a bass and a saxophone blending together, soaring alone!
About Houston Person
While Ron Carter has played on many of the jazz albums I have listened to over the years, I don’t think that I have heard the terrific Mr. Person before last week. As such, I needed to go and find out about the man, whose saxophone sounded so different from most of the saxs ve heard through the years……from Wikipedia..
Houston Person (born November 10, 1934) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and record producer. Although he has performed in the hard bop and swing genres, he is most experienced in and best known for his work in soul jazz. Person is also known for his distinctive sassy sound and his expressive style of playing. He received the Eubie Blake Jazz Award in 1982….
There are more than 75 albums recorded by Houston Person as a bandleader, on Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, and Muse Records. He has most recently been recording on HighNote Records. He has recorded with Charles Brown, Bill Charlap, Charles Earland, Lena Horne, Etta Jones, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Billy Butler, Richard “Groove” Holmes[2] and others. Read More
Houston as a Sideman
So Person has recorded over 75 albums as a leader and a ton more as a sideman. Boy, I once again have a lot of catching up to do!! I did listen to one of those albums that Person recorded as a sideman, Johnny “Hammond” Smith‘s Good ‘Nuff. If you’ve read posts here before,you know I can’t pass up, a good Hammond B-3 album and Person’s sax makes this one a treat!!
Speaking of Hammond B3, another album that Houston played on was Introducing Atsuko Hashimoto a release from jazz organist Atsuko Hashomoto. The album’s other sideman was Jeff HamilIton on drums. Based on how much I really like this album and the latest release from Atsuko, that I also listened to, exploring the music of Houston Person is going to be a lot of fun! I still have to find and listen to, Person’s current album!
So check out Houston’s sax in whatever setting you like, it’s all good stuff!! Oh, and a Happy Belated 80th Birthday to you Houston!!!
Links
Wikipedia
AllMusic
MySpace
All About Jazz
Amazon
Here’s “Bemsha Swing”from Now’s the Time…..