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Keith Oxman: Two Cigarettes In the Dark
by Edward Blanco
With the impressive Two Cigarettes in the Dark, Denver-based saxophonist Keith Oxman delivers what is most probably one of the finest albums on the contemporary jazz scene today. Imagine being in a dark room where you see nothing and suddenly two cigarettes are lit; naturally your attention will be focused on the cigarettes and the smoke they produce. On this album, the two burning sticks are Oxman and legendary sax man Houston Person together lighting-up the place. The ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: I'm Just a Lucky So and So
by Jack Bowers
Perhaps tenor saxophonist Houston Person is indeed A Lucky So and So, as he professes on his newly recorded album of that name, but it has taken far more than luck to sustain a long and successful career that spans more than half a century and numbers more than sixty albums as leader of his own groups. Person's “luck," such as it is, has been bolstered by his remarkable ability to connect with listeners—call it charisma or whatever you will—while ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person with the John Toomey Trio at Old Dominion University
by Mark Robbins
Dizzy Gillespie said of Houston Person, “He's one of the best... He's got bull chops!" Those “bull chops" got quite a workout when Person visited Old Dominion University as the guest performer of the F. Ludwig Diehn Concert Series. The tenor saxophonist arrived early in the week to preside over a series of master classes as well as rehearsing and performing with the Old Dominion Jazz Choir and Jazz Orchestra. To cap off his week Person performed with ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person & Ron Carter: Remember Love
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Houston Person and bassist Ron Carter, now in their eighties, have been performing and recording as a duo for almost three decades now (Remember Love marks their seventh album in that format since Something in Common was released on Muse in 1990). Remember Love was recorded in March 2018 at the renowned Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood, New Jersey, which has a number of good points (clarity is a given) and others that some observers ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Rain or Shine
by Jack Bowers
Tenor saxophonist Houston Person, now in his eightieth decade, has made no concessions to Father Time, choosing instead to use his many years in the jazz trenches to forge a style all his own, bathed in blues and soul but never turning a deaf ear to the allure of a seductive and tasteful melody. Each of these components is clear as the midday sun on Rain or Shine, a well-designed studio session on which Person shares the front line with ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person at Kiawah Island, South Carolina
by Rob Rosenblum
Houston Person Quartet Turtle Point Club House Kiawah Island Concert Series Kiawah Island January 8, 2017 No rough edges, no experimentation, music just as smooth as chocolate pudding. A perfectly molded musical travelogue down memory lane. Not a formula for a grand performance, but somehow tenor saxophonist Houston Person makes it work, time after time. Person is a throwback to the simpler and easier times of the 1940's. The songs familiar, the ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Nice 'n' Easy
by Jack Bowers
Even though Houston Person isn't, strictly speaking, a “Texas tenor"--he hails from Florence, SC--the crafty veteran hits the mark in almost every other respect, from his clear and powerful sound to his unremitting propensity to brighten a melody and to swing under any and all conditions. On his latest album, Person, still marshaling all the right notes at age seventy-eight, is said to be taking it Nice 'n' Easy, but that's anyone's guess, as he makes what he does sound ...
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