photo by Andrea Canter

Dubbed “the natural heir to the Boss Tenor crown worn so long and so well by Gene Ammons” (Bob Porter, liner notes for The Party), 72-year-old global performer Houston Person knows the music business inside out, from booking his own tours to producing his own albums. As eclectic as he is talented, Person has recorded everything from disco and gospel to pop and r&b, in addition to his trademark, souful hard bop. After years as producer and house tenor for High Note Records and touring with the late Etta Jones, Person is getting renewed recognition as a master of popular songs played in a relaxed, highly accessible style. On November 17th-19thh, Houston Person brings his swinging quartet to the Jazz at Pearl's in San Francisco and nothing beats bluesy, feel-good jazz as a time-out from fall chores.

Person grew up in Florence, South Carolina, and remembers his parents listening to lots of music at home, including jazz. First playing piano before switching to the tenor sax at age 17, he went on to study music at South Carolina State College (where he is included in the school’s Hall of Fame), and later pursued advanced studies at Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. As a member of the United States Air Force band stationed in Germany, he played with Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton, and Don Ellis, later working as a sideman for organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith in the mid 1960s.

Person built his reputation as a leader with a series of soulful recordings for Prestige in the 60s. However, he was often upstaged by his legendary partnership with the great vocalist, Etta Jones, which lasted over 30 years until her death in 2001. Recently he has performed with vocalist Barbara Morrison, and was with her at the Dakota last spring where they taped a live recording, due out next month.

Houston Person has recorded over 75 albums as a leader on Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, and Muse, which became High Note Records; his appearances as sideman are legion, and include the recordings with Etta Jones, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Dakota Staton, Horace Silver, Charles Earland, Charles Brown, and many others. As a record producer, he has worked with many artists, including gEtta Jones, Freddy Cole, Charles Brown, Buck Hill, Dakota Staton, and Ernie Andrews. In 1990, his recording with Ron Carter, Something in Common (Muse), won the Independent Jazz Record of the Year Award, and he received an Indie Award for his recording, Why Not? (Muse). Other awards have included the prestigious Eubie Blake Jazz Award (1982) and the Fred Hampton Scholarship Fund Image Award (1993), and he has been honored with a "Houston Person/Etta Jones Day" in Hartford County, MD (1982) and in Washington, DC (1983). His High Note recordings as both tenor artist and producer, My Buddy: Etta Jones Sings the Songs of Buddy Johnson and Etta Jones Sings Lady Day, were Grammy Finalists in the Best Jazz Vocal category in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

Wrote Gary Giddens in the Village Voice, “I have always admired Houston Person for his huge tone, bluff humor, and pointed obbligato…Person lucidly rides the beat with figures you think you've heard but haven't. These are not recycled licks or clichés; they simply seem familiar, like family… gray hair aside, Person is unchanged, an unmoved mover of certain jazz essentials.”

Person’s current touring quartet includes pianist Stan Hope, bassist Per Ola Gadd, and drummer Alvin Atkinson, Jr. Raised in Atlantic City, pianist Stan Hope taught himself to play piano when he was 10 years old. Since 1949, he has played and/or recorded with many jazz giants, including Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Johnny Hartman, Hank Mobley, Clifford Brown, and Hank Crawford, as well as the Ink Spots. For the last 15 years of her life, Hope was the pianist for Etta Jones, and still tours and records with Houston Person. Dave Nathan (All Music Guide) cites Hope’s “solid, reliable style shaped by Erroll Garner and Bud Powell.”

Per Ola Gadd has been one of most prominent bassist in Sweden in the past decade, leading him to the US where he has performed with Freddie Cole and Buddy DeFranco, in addition to Houston Person and Etta Jones.

Alvin Atkinson, Jr. currently teaches drum studies at the New School University in New York City. His recent credits include a 2004 Jazz Ambassador tour of Africa and South America, a performance at the White House in 2002, serving as house drummer for of the Emeril Live television show, performances at the Jazz at Lincoln Center with the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, and a movie score with Freddie Cole (A Tale of Two Pizzas). He has toured with Benny Green, Ellis Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, Eric Reed, Curtis Fuller, Branford Marsalis, Charlie Byrd, Oscar Brown, Jr., Wycliffe Gordon, and Nnenna Freelon, in addition to Houston Person.

Ask him what’s important in his music, and Houston Person notes that, “It's important that it's relaxing…Relaxes you and makes you feel good… I'm going to always play the things that I think contributes to good jazz, such as the blues and swinging.” For a relaxing, swinging evening, check out Houston Person at Jazz at Pearl's May 17th-19thh.

For more information about Houston Person, seemembers.tripod.com/~hardbop/person.html . and see the Jazz Pearl's website for more into on the venue: