Houston Person

Houston Person – Houston Person Meets Peter Beets Trio – ‘Live in Holland’ (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:03 minutes | 539 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Maxanter Records

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. He received the “Eubie Blake Jazz Award” in 1982.

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Houston Person – Houston Express (Remastered) (1971/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:34 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Jazz, Soul Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings

Houston Express is the ninth album led by saxophonist Houston Person. Houston Person’s the main soloist in front of bigger backings – heard here in a style that’s a bit like some of the changes in funky jazz that were going on over at Kudu Records during the same time – a filling up of the background rhythms, but still with hip players overall – and plenty of room for the main soloist to do his thing! Horace Ott conducts the backings, and brings in a soulful undercurrent that almost gives a few of the sharper numbers a soundtrack feel. Titles include “The Houston Express”, “Young Gifted & Black”, “Give More Power To The People”, “Chains of Love”, and “Enjoy”.

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Houston Person – Rain or Shine (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 56:20 minutes | 616 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HighNote Records

The soulfully expressive tenor saxophonist, Houston Person learned his craft in the 1950s, a time when some of the earliest pioneers of jazz saxophone – Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster – were playing. Like Sonny Rollins and a handful of others, Person is an eloquent messenger who is rooted in traditional blues, church music, Broadway love songs and the mimicking of a singer’s tonal palette and phrasing. His blues feel led to a renaissance among acid-jazz clubbers years later, and his sound has become uniquely characterful: an idiosyncratic edit of all he has learned, expressed in shrugging hoots, briefly cantering bop sprints, spacious and softly blown ballads. With his long-time friend and colleague, cornetist Warren Vaché and guitarist Rodney Jones, Person’s burnished sophistication, assured elegance and poise are again on display giving listeners an object lesson in unfussy, no-gimmicks music-making.

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Houston Person – I’m Just a Lucky So and So (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 55:32 minutes | 630 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HighNote Records

Houston Person may be one of the few still-active players in the long history of blues-drenched “boss tenors” that stretches back to Gene Ammons, Arnett Cobb, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Bullmoose Jackson and others.

Person has long exhibited a keen ear for simpatico musicians, ranging from his classic partnership with Etta Jones, to his series of superb duo encounters with bass master Ron Carter the man chooses his company skilfully. This date is no exception, as he negotiates his tenor in the company of first-class players. It’s clear that his band mates took his studio-made admonition of “Right note or wrong note it’s got to swing!” to heart for each one stands in complete harmony with Houston Person’s noble intentions for this date.

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Houston Person – Houston Person Live in Paris (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:53 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HighNote Records

Houston Person is the real deal. With a lifetime of experience Houston continues to grace concert stages with his expressive style which stubbornly defies categorization. One moment he is letting loose with some hard-driving swing and the next he is caressing your ears with his mellifluous, baritonal utterances on a beautiful ballad. “I just play good music,” explains Houston. “I look for a great melody and great lyrics.” Houston’s preoccupation with the art of melody is on full display in this live recording captured during his appearance at the Festival Jazz a la Villette in 2019. This is Houston’s first live recording in some time and it is quite an unforgettable experience, with the legendary man taking great care in putting just the right set list together for his audience, covering a wide variety of styles drawn from his remarkable career. Having recorded his first album as a leader in 1966 titled “Underground Soul,” coincidentally also an organ-tenor quartet, Houston Person has been a standard-bearer of so-called “soul jazz,” but that is a misnomer in his case. The truth is Houston plays soulful jazz rather than “soul jazz”; music that communicates with the listener and touches the heart. How appropriate it is then, that this live recording originates from Paris, also known as the “City of Love.”

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Houston Person – Reminiscing at Rudy’s (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:24 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HighNote Records

Tenor saxophonist Houston Person’s playing has a lot in common with a perfectly brewed cup of coffee: both are bold, satisfying, smooth, eye-opening and addictive once experienced.

Whether it be during smouldering blues-tinged numbers (“Please Send Me Someone to Love”), up-tempo takes on old favorites (“At Long Last Love,” “Moon River”), or steamy, sultry, late-night ballads (“Put Your Head on My Shoulder”), Person never fails to deliver a performance where expressivity is the order of the day. The band is made up of a hand-picked group from Person’s cadre of regular colleagues with guitar great Russell Malone adding his imaginative voicings and swinging rhythms to the mix.

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