Recording made by France Musique on September 8, 2019 at the Cité de la Musique in Paris during the Festival Jazz à la Villette

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, 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

 Easy Walker

 Since I Fell For You

 Sweet Sucker

 Lester Leaps In