Reggie Houston (born July 2, 1947,

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States) is an American musician who plays

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

and

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

. He is best known for his association with the New Orleans pianist

Fats Domino Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...

Early life

A seventh generation New Orleanian, Houston was born in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

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.

Career

Houston's first professional gig came at the age of 12 when he joined the Batiste family band, The Gladiators, widely considered to be one of the pioneering bands of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

. Houston continued to perform with The Gladiators throughout high school and while home on holiday from his undergraduate studies at

Southern University Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...

and

Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana (also known as XULA) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Roman Catholic, Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic HBCU ...

. 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 The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, Houston learned that his former

music professor,

Alvin Batiste Alvin Batiste (November 7, 1932 – May 6, 2007) was an American avant-garde jazz clarinetist born, who was in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He taught at his own jazz institute at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hi ...

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 The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New ...

. Alvin convinced

Quint Davis Quint Davis (born November 5, 1947) 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 (Jazz Fest) founded by George Wein. Davis has been involved in the ...

(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 ( Lee; born February 18, 1941) is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans". Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial succ ...

. In 1982, Houston joined The Survivors, whose other original core members included keyboardist Sam Henry, drummer

Zigaboo Modeliste Joseph "Ziggy" Modeliste (born December 28, 1948), also known as Zigaboo, is an American drummer best known as a founding member of the funk band the Meters. He is widely considered an innovator in the funk genre and New Orleans style drumming. ...

The Neville Brothers The Neville Brothers were an American R&B/soul/funk group, formed in 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana. History The group notion started in 1976, when the four brothers of the Neville family, Art (1937–2019), Charles (1938–2018), Aaron (b. 19 ...

Charmaine Neville Charmaine Neville (born March 31, 1956) is a New Orleans-based jazz singer. Biography Raised Catholic, she is the daughter of Charles Neville of The Neville Brothers. She is the lead singer of the Charmaine Neville Band, a jazz and funk ba ...

, and Ramsy McLean. Other players with The Survivors included guitar virtuoso

Steve Masakowski Steve Masakowski (born September 2, 1954) is jazz guitarist, educator, and inventor. He invented the guitar-based keytar and the switch pick, and has designed three custom-built seven-string guitars. He developed an approach to playing the guit ...

, drummer Ricky Sebastian,

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rap ...

, and a teenaged

Harry Connick Jr. Joseph Harry Fowler Connick Jr. (born September 11, 1967) is an American singer, pianist, composer, actor, and television host. He has sold over 28million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top60 best-selling male artists in the Uni ...

In 1983, Houston joined The

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 Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B. Active as a session musician from t ...

, with whom Houston occasionally gigged in New Orleans, offered Houston the

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. Other collaborators in the Charmaine Neville Band included pianist, Amasa Miller and drummer, Raymond Weber. 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

*2010 - "Homage 1" by Reggie Houston, featuring Grammy nominated pianist Janice Scroggins *2009 - "Bridges" by Mary Flower. *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 Bingham Mark Kendall Bingham (May 22, 1970 – September 11, 2001) was an American public relations executive who founded his own company, the Bingham Group. During the September 11 attacks in 2001, he was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93. ...

*1999 - "Come On Now Social" by

The Indigo Girls Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of ...

. 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 Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

, 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-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie, (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is an Indigenous Canadian-American (Piapot Cree Nation) singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. While working in these are ...

*1990 - "Brother's Keeper" by

*1988 - "Creole Nightingale" by Tim Williams *1988 - "Ed Frank Quintet/Ramsey McLean & The Survivors - New New Orleans Music: Jump Jazz" *1986 - "

: His Greatest Hits" Recorded live at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles on August 22, 1985

References

*Biographical data contained in an August 2005 video interview with Reggie Houston, conducted by Kristin Valinsky.

External links

reggiehouston.com
The official Reggie Houston website {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Reggie 1947 births Living people Jazz musicians from New Orleans American blues saxophonists American jazz saxophonists American funk saxophonists American male saxophonists Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans 21st-century American saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians