Reggie Houston
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
.
Biography
Houston was born in New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
to Ralph Houston, a pianist and acoustic bassist, and Margarete Houston, who was both an educator and social activist. At the age of 10 Reggie Houston began studying the saxophone. His first professional gig came at the age of 12 when he joined the Batiste family band, The Gladiators
The Gladiators (band)
The Gladiators are a Jamaican roots reggae band, most popular during the 1970s. The core was Albert Griffiths , Clinton Fearon and Dallimore Sutherland bass guitar and singer. The two most famous albums are Trenchtown Mix Up and Proverbial Reggae with songs as "Hearsay", "Jah Works", "Dreadlocks...
, widely considered to be one of the pioneering bands of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
.
Houston continued to perform with The Gladiators throughout high school and while home on holiday from his undergraduate studies at Southern University
Southern University
Southern University and A&M College is a historically black college located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Baton Rouge campus is located on Scott’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in the northern section...
and Xavier University University of Louisiana. Although performing jazz, blues and funk throughout New Orleans during this time, it was forbidden to practice these musical styles in any African American university in the United States.
After returning from fighting in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Houston learned that his former Southern University
Southern University
Southern University and A&M College is a historically black college located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Baton Rouge campus is located on Scott’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in the northern section...
music professor, Alvin Batiste
Alvin Batiste
Alvin Batiste was an avant garde jazz clarinetist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He taught at his own jazz institute at Southern University in Baton Rouge...
had just begun a jazz program at Southern University. Houston made a phone call to Southern University and one day later was studying with Alvin Batiste in the country's first university jazz program . (Years later Houston returned to Southern to reunite with the former students of that class, and to be inducted into The Music Hall of Fame at Southern University where Alvin Batiste worked until his death in 2007.)
While Houston was preparing for graduation from Southern, Batiste was being consulted about the organization of the first annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, often known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana...
. Alvin convinced Quint Davis
Quint Davis
Quint Davis is an American festival producer and director based in New Orleans. He is best known as the producer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival founded by George Wein. Davis has been involved in the production of the event from its start in 1970. He is the CEO of Festival...
(who would become the main creative force behind the festival) to hire some of the graduate students from Southern's jazz program. Upon his graduation in 1973, Houston returned to New Orleans and was immediately put to work in the jazz tent at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Over the next ten years Houston became an integral part of the festival, and as a paid employee of the festival, he worked as stage manager, booking agent, and emcee.
While working for the festival, Houston continued to gig with artists like New Orleans' soul queen Irma Thomas
Irma Thomas
Irma Thomas is an American Grammy Award-winning soul and rhythm and blues singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans"....
.
In 1982 Houston joined The Survivors, whose other original core members included keyboardist Sam Henry
Sam Henry
Sam Henry may refer to:* Sam Henry , a member of the band Wipers* Samuel Henry, ice hockey player...
, drummer Zigaboo Modeliste, The Neville Brothers
The Neville Brothers
The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:The group notion started in 1976, when the four brothers of the Neville family, Art , Charles , Aaron , and Cyril The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in...
, Charmaine Neville
Charmaine Neville
Charmaine Neville is a member of a famous New Orleans music family which includes the Neville Brothers. The daughter of Charles Neville, she is currently the leader and lead singer of the Charmaine Neville Band, a jazz/funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana.Ms...
, and Ramsy McLean. Other players with The Survivors included guitar virtuoso Steve Masakowski, drummer Ricky Sebastian, Bobby McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin
Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, Jr. is an American vocalist and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy". He is a ten-time Grammy Award winner.-Life:...
, and a teenaged Harry Connick Jr.
In 1983 Houston joined The Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
Band, and aside from a three year hiatus that began in 1988, was a permanent member of Fats' band for the next 22 years.
During that hiatus, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, with whom Houston occasionally gigged in New Orleans, offered Houston the baritone saxophone
Baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
role in his band. But by that time Houston, who had been playing sax with Charmaine Neville, had accepted her offer to lead her band, which he did until moving to Portland, Oregon in 2004.
Today Houston lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is an arts educator and continues to gig regularly with The Charmaine Neville Band and his own bands, The Box of Chocolates, The Earth Island Band, The Crescent City Connection, and The Reggie Houston Arkestra.
Recording credits
- 2006 - "The Katrina Sessions" by Matthew Voth, with guest musician Reggie Houston
- 2004 - "Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: Big Ol' Box of New Orleans" Shout! Factory's mammoth 4 disc collection that covers the full range of Crescent City music, from R&B to jazz, zydeco and funk.
- 2003 - "Louisiana Night" by Jimmy "Bean" Ballero, with guest musician Reggie Houston
- 2003 - "Makin' Groceries" by Reggie Houston and Friends
- 2001 - "Fats Domino Live! (Shout)" Recorded live in 2001 at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
- 2001 - "Guthro" by Bruce Guthro
- 2001 - "Sisters on the Riverbed" by Nanaco
- 2000 - "Urgin' For The Virgin" by Reggie Houston's Earth Island Band
- 2000 - "Mardi Gras Mambo" by Cubanismo
- 2000 - "As Long as You're Living Yours: The Music of Keith Jarrett"
- 1999 - "Wordless Praise The Gospel Saxophone of Reggie Houston" with Ezekiel Williams on organ & piano, Damian Brown on piano, organ & synthesizer, Cornell Williams on bass, and Jeffrey Alexander drums. Produced by Mark BinghamMark Bingham (musician/music producer)Mark Bingham is an American music producer/composer/musician/engineer.In 1966 , Bingham was signed to a publishing contract with Elektra Records. After a brief stint at Elektra in Los Angeles and one single released on Warner Bros., he returned to Bloomington where he attended Indiana University...
- 1999 - "Come On Now Social" by The Indigo GirlsIndigo GirlsThe Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
. Reggie appears on track 6 "Peace Tonight" along with guest vocalist Joan Osborne - 1999 - "Dew Drop Out" by The Yockamo All-Stars
- 1999 - "Little Red Wagon" by Ramsey & Vaan, Reggie appears as a guest musician on track 1 "The Lady I Hated to Lose"
- 1997 - "The Best of Austin City Limits: Legends of Country Music"
- 1996 - "Up Up Up" by The Charmaine Neville Band
- 1996 - "StarGeezer" by Spider John Koerner
- 1994 - "Gazebo Sessions" by The Reggie Houston-Amasa Miller Trio
- 1992 - "It's About Time" by The Charmaine Neville Band
- 1992 - "Us" by Peter GabrielPeter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, Reggie plays on track 6 "Washing of the Water" and Grammy nominated track 4 "Steam" which topped Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart for 5 weeks. - 1992 - "Coincidence and Likely Stories" by Buffy Sainte-MarieBuffy Sainte-MarieBuffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
- 1990 - "Brother's Keeper" by The Neville BrothersThe Neville BrothersThe Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:The group notion started in 1976, when the four brothers of the Neville family, Art , Charles , Aaron , and Cyril The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in...
- 1988 - "Creole Nightingale" by Tim Williams
- 1988 - "Ed Frank Quintet/Ramsey McLean & The Survivors - New New Orleans Music: Jump Jazz"
- 1986 - "Fats DominoFats DominoAntoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
: His Greatest Hits" Recorded live at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles on August 22, 1985
External links
- reggiehouston.com The official Reggie Houston website