Once upon a time, in a land far far away…
A tenor saxophone used to actually sound like a tenor saxophone. Big, full, warm and breathy.
If you go visit the La Brea Tar Pits, you might come across the skeletons of the likes of guys like Houston Person, who is one of the last of the survivors of this style of playing. You better appreciate him, because when he leaves us, the pickings get REALLY slim.
Here, during a 2019 Festival Jazz a la Villette in Paris, Person blows warm embers with a humming Hammond B3 trio team of Ben Paterson/B3, Willis Jones/dr and Peter Bernstein/g. The delicious setting bubbles over like a root beer float, with Person rolling in like a San Francisco fog on the relaxed blues “Sweet Sucker” or the sensuous “Only Trust Your Heart”. Paterson serves up a rib sticking organic support, creating a rich drapery for Bernstein and Person on a luscious bel canto “The Way We Were” while pulling out the plugs over Jones’ crisp sticks on the snappy “Easy Walker”. Person agonizes on the R&B classic “Since I Fell For You”, boogaloos in wide wale chords with Bernstein on the upbeat “ Sunny” and digs in deep on “Jean-Jaures Shuffle”. If it sounds so easy, why can’t anyone else do it these days?