Acanthus EVENTS
Music to play everything — ‘Night Train,’ ‘Flying Home’ — and then you had to play the pretty stuff like ‘Stardust.’” Person has kept it pretty, but he has always done it with commanding style and muscular tone. “The biggest sound in the world — I wanted it,” he says.
Beer and Wine, Espresso, Daily Lunch Specials, Appetizers, Small-Plate Dinners
Tuesdays:
Open Mic Comedy Night
Wednesdays:
Pure Kona Poetry Reading
Thursdays:
Live Open Music
Fridays:
3/22: Silverfish 4/5: Moho Collective 4/26: Tim Avram out of Detroit with T.B.A.
Saturdays:
Chill music with DJ Tom DeBlase Saturday 3/23: DJ Keven Atoms and Jim Kempkes present Floorwax Guest Bartender Mike Beaudrie
337 East Avenue • 319-5999 Tues–Wed: 11am-10pm, Thurs: 11am-Midnight, Fri-Sat: 11am-2am, Closed Sunday & Monday
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300 Park Point Drive WWW.LOVINCUP.COM 585.292.9940 14 CITY MARCH 20-26, 2013
When Person began his career
in the mid-1960’s it was a time of upheaval in the jazz world. Players like John Coltrane were taking the tenor Saxophonist Houston Person performs this week as part of Jazz 90.1’s Meet saxophone on a ride the Artist series. PHOTO BY GENE MARTIN to the stratosphere. “Ornette Coleman and others were farther out than ’Trane,” says Person. “Everybody was doing their own thing. The only thing that I believe in is natural evolution — it’s not contrived. Coltrane paid all of his dues. He went through a natural evolution. He came out of Houston Person the rhythm and blues bands.” THURSDAY, MARCH 21 But while Coltrane, Coleman, and others RADISSON HOTEL, RIVERSIDE, greats like Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter 120 E. MAIN ST. were playing abstract solos miles from the tune’s 8 P.M. | $10 ADVANCE (TWO-DRINK MINIactual notes, Person never strayed too far. MUM) 966-2660, JAZZ901.ORG “I’m really just trying to reshape the melody,” says Person. “I believe in the [ PROFILE ] BY RON NETSKY melody. I try to play these great melodies that also have great lyrics. I read those lyrics and Houston Person still remembers the day in get what I think the song means and what the 1950 that changed his life. He was a typical 16-year-old in his hometown of Florence, South composer meant for it to be, and then I want to get right in the middle of all of that and Carolina. He sang in the high-school choir add just a little bit.” and glee club, but he was mostly interested Sometimes even a little bit is too much. On in football and basketball. Then, Christmas his 2011 album, “So Nice,” he recorded Stephen morning, his parents gave him a surprise gift: a Sondheim’s “Anyone Can Whistle.” “I did tenor saxophone. “I don’t know why,” says Person, by phone straight melody,” says Person. “A lot of songs are from his home in Great Neck, Long Island. so beautiful, you don’t have to add anything.” “I’ve often thought about it as I’ve gotten older. He may not be pushing the envelope, I don’t know if it was preordained or what.” but few saxophonists can boast a gorgeous Sixty-three years, hundreds of albums, sound like Person’s, recalling that of Gene and thousands of concerts later, his life and Ammons and Stan Getz. On his latest album, career remain centered around the tenor “Naturally,” Person injects a bit more into sax. When it comes to soul-jazz, Person has classics like “My Foolish Heart” and “That’s been at the top of the genre for six decades. All.” “I improvised solos that were more Through all the different styles coursing bluesy than jazzy,” he says. through those decades — from hard bop, through fusion, to avant-garde — Person has The blues influence is not surprising been steadfast in his dedication. considering that blues was on the radio when “I know that I always wanted to play Person was growing up. Add some classical and pretty,” says Person. “The guys used to call it gospel and you’ve got the roots of his sound. ‘sweet horn.’ When I was in college you had
Playing it straight
“Every home had a piano,” says Person. “My mother played piano and I took lessons.” Person switched to sax lessons after receiving his tenor, but his real jazz education came several years later during his military service. Stationed in West Germany in the mid-1950’s, Person played in a band with some future jazz greats. “That was my learning experience,” says Person. “Eddie Harris was very helpful to me. Cedar Walton — every weekend we played together. And Don Menza was there, too. We had a lot of fun and I learned everything from those guys.” Six decades after his military experience, Walton is the pianist on Person’s latest album. His saxophone prowess developed further at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School in Connecticut. “They didn’t have any jazz there, it was strictly classical,” says Person, who still loves the great composers. “I would lean toward Bach and then the French guys, Debussy and Ravel, and then Franz Liszt — he was an improviser. So was Bach; I don’t know how he came up with those things every Sunday.” Person did not have too many encounters with the more experimental side of jazz, although in 1984 he recorded an album with adventurous pianist Ran Blake. “We went to school at the same time,” Person says. “He was at Bard and he’d come up to Hartford to hang out. He’s far out but he’s far in, too. He kept on top of the roots of jazz, gospel music, and blues. He’s a little like Cecil Taylor, plus he’s a wonderful guy.” Person’s longest musical association was with singer Etta Jones. They performed together for 35 years, until her death in 2001. What was the secret of their longevity? “She felt comfortable,” says Person. “She was a great singer. I always tried to get her to go out on her own, but she was comfortable in that situation. She didn’t want the hassles of leading a group. She had no ego. I played half a set and she played half a set.” Most musical careers have ebbs and flows;
artists who are hot one year sometimes can’t find an audience the next. But Person has never had a lull. “I’ve had a good run,” says Person, who is now in his late 70s. “I formed personal relationships by booking the band myself. I learned early that I could blow my own horn better than anybody else, so I got out there and did it. “Now I’ve got to figure out a way to slow down. I just went on a whirlwind West Coast tour,” Person says. “I can’t do that anymore, but I’m doing it. I play wherever. Whenever they call, I’m there.”