Joseph Abraham Houston (July 12, 1926 – December 28, 2015) was an American

tenor saxophonist 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 ...

who played

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

Biography

He was born in Bastrop, a suburb of

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, and studied

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

in school, changing to saxophone later. As a teen he began emulating a touring band by buying a red suit with white pants. One night in 1941 a saxophone player did not show for a gig with the band and Houston took his place. Between 1943 and 1946, Houston toured with King Kolax's band through

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and throughout the Mid-West. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Houston returned to Texas, and recorded with the pianist

Amos Milburn Joseph Amos Milburn (April 1, 1927 – January 3, 1980) was an American R&B singer and pianist, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. One commentator noted, "Milburn excelled at good-natured, upbeat romps about booze and partying, imbued with a ...

and singer

Big Joe Turner Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him". Turner's greatest fa ...

. Initially playing

alto sax 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 the key of E, smaller th ...

, he switched to

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

in the wake of such "honking" saxophonists as

Big Jay McNeely Cecil James "Big Jay" McNeely (April 29, 1927 – September 16, 2018) was an American R&B saxophonist. Biography Inspired by Illinois Jacquet and Lester Young, McNeely teamed with his older brother Robert McNeely, who played baritone saxophon ...

Wild Bill Moore William M. "Wild Bill" Moore (June 13, 1918 – August 1, 1983) was an American R&B and jazz tenor saxophone player. Moore earned a modest hit on the Hot R&B charts with "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll", which also was one of the earliest ro ...

Paul Williams Paul Williams may refer to: Authors * Paul Williams (Crawdaddy) (1948–2013), American music and science fiction journalist; founder of ''Crawdaddy'' and the Philip K. Dick Society * Paul Williams (Irish journalist) (born 1964), Irish journalis ...

Hal Singer Harold Joseph Singer (October 8, 1919 – August 18, 2020), also known as Hal "Cornbread" Singer, was an American R&B and jazz bandleader and saxophonist. Early life Harold Joseph Singer was born in Greenwood, an African-American district ...

and

Chuck Higgins Charles Williams Higgins (April 17, 1924 – September 14, 1999) was an American saxophonist. Higgins relocated from his birthplace of Gary, Indiana to Los Angeles in his teens, where he played trumpet and went to school at the Los Angeles Con ...

. Turner got Houston his first

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

on Freedom Records in 1949. Houston moved to

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

, and played with

Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter best remembered as a singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by ...

Savannah Churchill Savannah Churchill (born Savannah Valentine Roberts; August 21, 1920 – April 19, 1974) was an American rhythm and blues singer in the 1940s and 1950s. She is best known for her number-one R&B single "I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)." Life ...

and Betty Roche. Eventually, Houston formed his own band The Rockets, and moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1952. He scored his only two

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

s in 1952 with "Worry, Worry, Worry", and "Hard Time Baby" both of which peaked at #10 on ''

Billboard's ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the ...

R&B singles chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 po ...

. He recorded for many record companies, including Freedom, Macy's,

Modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

Combo Combo may refer to: Technology *Combo television unit, a television with either a VCR or a DVD player built into a single unit * Combo drive, a type of optical drive that can read CDs and DVDs *A guitar amplifier incorporating one or more loudsp ...

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imper ...

, Bayou, and the

Recorded In Hollywood Recorded In Hollywood was an independent American record label specializing in rhythm and blues, active from the late 1940s to the end of the 1950s, which issued several sides by artists significant to the genre. John Dolphin (music producer), Joh ...

/Lucky/Money/

Cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

group of labels, and contributed vocals as well as tenor saxophone on some of his records. Houston was based in Los Angeles throughout most of his career. He toured and recorded with his band 'The Defrosterz', started up by Mark St. John, who acted as his bassist and manager for almost 20 years, plus the keyboardist Mike Malone. They toured North America and recorded throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The band was signed to the Shattered Records label. Houston's musical career stalled after he suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in 2006. He returned to the stage in July 2008 and performed at the Long Beach Lobster Festival. He continued to entertain until 2012. He died on December 28, 2015, in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, following some more health issues."Joe Houston, Pioneering Rock & Roll Sax Player, Has Died at 89", ''LA Weekly'', December 29, 2015
Retrieved December 30, 2015

Singles

Albums

*''Joe Houston'' (

, 1955) *''Rockin' At The Drive In'' (Combo, 1956) *''Blows All Nite Long'' (

, 1956) *''Rocks and Rolls All Nite Long'' (

, 1957) reissue of ''Blows All Nite Long'' *''Rock and Roll with Joe Houston and His Rockets'' (Tops, 1957) *''Wild Man of the Tenor Sax'' (Crown, 1961) *''Doin' The Twist'' (Crown, 1962) *''Twisting in Orbit'' (Crown, 1962) *''Rockin' and Rollin' '' (Crown, 1962) *''Surf Rockin' '' (Crown, 1963) *''Limbo'' (Crown, 1963) *''Kicking Back'' (Big Town, 1978) *''The Return of Honk!'' with

Otis Grand Fred Bishti (February 14, 1950 – June 2023), known professionally as Otis Grand, was a Lebanese-born American blues musician, best known for his album, ''Perfume & Grime'' (1996) and his exciting live performances. He was honoured with the Pre ...

( JSP, 1994) *''The Blues & Nothin' Else'' (Shattered Music, 1996)

References

External links

*
Joe Houston discography
scans of Houston's vinyl albums * {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Joe 1926 births 2015 deaths Musicians from Austin, Texas American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists Imperial Records artists Modern Records artists RPM Records (United States) artists Kent Records artists Combo Records artists Jump blues musicians People from Bastrop, Texas Jazz musicians from Texas American male jazz musicians 20th-century American saxophonists