Houston Person

Houston Person

Person performing at the Cellar in 2006
Background information
Born (1934-11-10) November 10, 1934
Florence, South Carolina United States
Genres Jazz, hard bop, soul jazz, swing
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, bandleader, producer
Instruments Saxophone
Labels Prestige Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, Muse Records, HighNote Records, Telarc Records
Associated acts Etta Jones

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.

Biography

Person grew up in Florence, South Carolina, and first played piano before switching to tenor saxophone.[1] He studied at South Carolina State College where he was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 1999.

In the United States Air Force, he joined a service band stationed in West Germany, and played with Don Ellis, Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton, and Leo Wright. He later continued his studies at Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut.

He first became known for a series of albums for Prestige Records in the 1960s. Contrary to popular belief, he was never married to the vocalist Etta Jones, but did spend many years as her musical partner, recording, performing and touring, and for much of his career this association was what he was best known for. They first met playing in organist Johnny Hammond's band.

There are more than 75 albums recorded by Houston Person as a bandleader, on Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, and Muse Records, and 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.

Houston Person performing with his combo at the Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival in 2009.
Houston Person in Paris, France in 1980

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With The 3B's

With Gene Ammons

With Billy Butler

With Joey DeFrancesco

With Grant Green

With Tiny Grimes

With Charles Earland

With Charles Kynard

With Johnny Lytle

With Don Patterson

With Sonny Phillips

With Bernard Purdie

With Shirley Scott

With Janis Siegel

With Horace Silver

With Johnny "Hammond" Smith

With Melvin Sparks

References

  1. ↑ Biography at allmusic
  2. ↑ Henderson, Alex & Leggett, Steve at allmusic

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.