There was a time, from say 1969 to 1973, when he fooled around with more soulful forms of jazz like R&B and funk that probably helped him gain a certain type of commercial acceptance.Īnd then for a little while, starting in about 1974 when jazz-with-a-dance-beat hits such as Deodato's "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)" and Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa" made it big, Person was willing to jump into the fire more and embrace the emergence of disco. The vast majority of his music is as far away from "acid jazz," "funk" or "groove music" as you can get. He has since become something of an "acid jazz" icon - a term he's actually said to dislike - but I don't think it's appropriate to him. Because he tackles so much popular fare and has a fondness for overplayed standards, Person is also often compared to Sonny Stitt (1924-82).īut even from his earliest records, Person has maintained an easily recognizable signature sound on tenor sax that's all his own, regardless of the format or context he appears within. 1934) is one of those tenor giants who is always compared to the bebop-meets-R&B sax of Gene Ammons (1925-74), or is said to carry on Ammons' "big horn" sound of softly swinging, growly blues. The company, now owned by Universal Music, the largest record concern in the recording industry, was home at the time to hugely popular rock acts like Bachman Turner Overdrive, Thin Lizzy, the Ohio Players, who like Person came to Mercury from Westbound, and, for a brief period between 19, jazz acts like Gabor Szabo, Jimmy Smith, Chico Hamilton, Bennie Maupin and Houston Person.
In between his little-known Eastbound/Westbound years (1973-75) and the prolific Muse years (1976-94), tenor saxophonist Houston Person recorded his only two albums for a major label, Mercury Records, home to many a pop hit since being founded by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge in Chicago, Illinois, in 1945.
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