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Houston Person: To Etta With Love
by John Kelman
With an increasing emphasis on high-priced concert venues and large summer festivals, one forgets that for the longest time jazz resided in the not-quite-PC environment of the smoky bar. And while there's nothing wrong with jazz reaching a larger public through bigger venues, there's something about the ambience of a club that's lost in larger, more opulent settings. Hearing a great band in a club was always an event, but more intimate, more relaxed. Every now and then, though, an ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person
by Russ Musto
Houston Person is jazz' working class hero, a true man of the people. Person who was born in Newberry, South Carolina in 1934, first received moderate national attention with a series of soulful albums recorded for Prestige back in the '60s. In 1968 he began a sympathetic and successful musical partnership with the great Etta Jones that lasted over 30 years until her recent passing. A passionate tenor saxophonist, alternately tough and tender, Person's own talent was often overlooked because ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Social Call
by Jeff Stockton
Houston Person is the kind of player who sounds a little bit like a lot of people, but in the end most like himself. His tone can be burly and robust, but warm and romantic above all. His tune selection demonstrates impeccable taste and a commitment to the time before people changed the rules. Social Call is the kind of CD that you hear on a good jazz station where the deep-voiced DJs credit each musician in admiration – and ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Trust In Me
by Derek Taylor
Tough tenors were a staple diet for many jazz listeners in the 1960s. Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Stanley Turrentine, Arnett Cobb and so many others (the list could literally fill a ledger pages long) took ample measures of blues and soul-derived emotion and combined them with a no-nonsense emphasizing the tenor horn’s naturally sensual properties. While arguably not as well known, Houston Person belongs among their number. Fielding a sassy, vibrato-flecked tone and a biting, soulful lexicon ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Blue Odyssey
by Derek Taylor
Much to the chagrin of many critics the late 1960s was a heyday of sorts for Soul Jazz. The number of cats dipping their paws into the sweet nectar of the style would never again reach such denominations as it did during the close of the decade. Person, a saxophonist with both soulful touch and a bluesy sensibility balanced a tough tenor tone with a healthy supplication to the almighty beat. As each of the disc’s tracks generously demonstrates his ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Truth!
by Douglas Payne
Despite his Gene Ammons influence, tenor sax man Houston Person has long had his own deep and soulfully growling tone on tenor, whether grooving on blues and boogaloos or exploring ballads with expert sensitivity. Lately, he seems to concentrate exclusively - and beautifully - on ballads. But on the two sessions coupled for this, his second in Prestige's “Legends of Acid Jazz" series, he explores both sides with equal affection.Between 1966 and 1973, Person made a dozen records ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Island Episode
by Douglas Payne
There must be very few musicians as frequently recorded as Houston Person who are as misunderstood, maligned or just plain ignored. The jazz crowd thinks he's just a funkster. And the funk lovers write him off as a balladeer or standards-bearer. Of course, he's all this and more. He's also an accomplished be-bopster, a kick-ass bluesmith, a passionate gospel player, a sensitive accompanist and in addition to becoming quite the talent scout and seasoned producer, he's really turned ...
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