HOUSTON PERSON
HOUSTON PERSON LIVE IN PARIS
HighNote Records HCD 7338
Recording made by France Musique on September 8th 2019 at the Cité de la musique in Paris during the Festival Jazz à la Villette
Houston Person, tenor saxophone
Ben Paterson – B-3 organ • Peter Bernstein – guitar
Willie Jones III - drums

Tracks: Sweet Sucker • Only Trust Your Heart • Easy Walker • The Way We Were • Lester Leaps In • Since I Fell for You • Sunny • Jean-Jaures Shuffle

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.”

Houston Person Live in Paris

Sweet Sucker

Houston Person Live in Paris - Sweet Sucker

Bill O’Connell – A Change is Gonna Come
Savant Records SCD 2197

Bill O'Connell – all arrangements, piano & Fender Rhodes
Craig Handy – tenor & soprano saxophone
Lincoln Goines – acoustic & electric bass
Steve Jordan – drums • Pedrito Martinez – percussion

TRACK LIST
Moment’s Notice • Loco-Motive • Covid Blues • A Change is Gonna Come • Sun for Sonny • Enough is Enough • Sweet Peanut • A Prayer for Us • Chaos • My Foolish Heart

It may be wintertime now, a winter further darkened by the Covid crisis, but Bill O’Connell’s optimistically-titled A Change is Gonna Come exudes some welcome warmth and sunshine.  Even Bill’s original “Covid Blues” displays a subtle sense of playfulness, entrusting the slightly off-kilter blues number to the distinctive tone color of Craig Handy’s soprano saxophone.  Likewise the plaintive melody of Sam Cooke’s title track contains a note of optimism here.  But with O’Connell at the helm we shouldn’t be surprised by imaginative arrangements.  He is a real triple-threat in jazz, equally well-known as a composer, arranger and instrumentalist, having honed his craft carefully from his days with Mongo Santamaria in the 70s, his involvement in the legendary ensemble, Jasmine, his gigs with Chet Baker, Gato Barbieri, Sonny Rollins and others and his long-time associations with Jerry Gonzalez’s Fort Apache Band and the late Latin jazz flautist, Dave Valentin.  A Change is Gonna Come features seven remarkable works by O’Connell, a four-time recipient of the Jazz Writer of the Year from SESAC, a tune by Trane, the title track by Sam Cooke and a unique take on the standard “My Foolish Heart.”  With Handy, Lincoln Goines, Pedrito Martinez and drummer Steve Jordon (currently taking over for the late Charlie Watts with the Rolling Stones) Bill O’Connell’s latest Savant recording cements his place as a master of the broadest spectrum of musical styles, a giant of modern jazz and a member of Latin jazz royalty.

A Change Is Gonna Come

"Sun For Sunny" from A Change Is Gonna Come - Bill O'Connell

Giacomo Gates – You
Savant Records SCD 2189

Giacomo Gates - vocals
Tim Ray – piano
John Lockwood – bass
James Lattini – drums

TRACK LIST
Exactly Like You • I Can’t Give You Anything But Love • With Plenty of Money and You • I Didn’t Know About You • The Nearness of You • It Had to Be You • I Thought About You • I Want to Talk About You • I Mean You • P.S. I Love You • Are You Havin’ Any Fun? • I Remember You • You’re Blasé • Everything But You • You’ve Changed • Since I Fell for You • I’ve Got News for You • You Never Miss the Water ‘Till The Well Runs Dry

“The context of many songs written and recorded, are composed by people with 'I' problems...but not these songs.  All of these songs are about you.” – Giacomo Gates

Jazz vocalist Giacomo Gates is blessed with a smooth and supremely expressive baritone voice and an all-inclusive musicality which encompasses a hipster-like coolness, a smattering of vocalese, an Eckstine-like seductiveness, the story telling ability of a griot, a firm footing in the blues and a sense of swing which is second-to-none.  His performances can be quiet and full of insight (or innuendo) or be ebullient and joyful.  Whatever style Gates may offer – be it sensitive, sensuous or syncopated – he infuses the music with an understated humor, wry cultural and social implications and an impish delight in surprising his listeners.  You is a perfect example of Gates at his best with the vocalist putting together a program with a unique and decidedly altruistic leitmotiv.  Here are 18 songs everybody knows and loves, arranged with creativity and wit and featuring Gates' gregarious delivery so that there can be no mistake, “it's all about you!”

Father God who is in Heaven

johnfroud

Related tracks