Joe Houston

Biography

Joe Houston, a honking R&B saxman of wallpaper-peeling strength, recorded for just about any major 3rd party R&B label in LA through the 1950s. Once the leap blues custom faded, he segued directly into rock and roll & roll, actually cutting spending budget Twist and browse albums for Crown that didn’t audio completely different from what he was performing a 10 years before. Houston performed around Houston, Tx using the rings of Amos Milburn and Joe Turner through the past due ’40s. It had been Turner who got the youthful saxist his 1st deal with Independence Information in 1949. Houston discovered his method to the Western Coastline in 1952 and commenced saving for brands big and little: Contemporary, RPM, Lucky, Imperial, Dootone, Documented in Hollywood, Money, and Cash (along with the substantially better-financed Mercury, where he obtained his only nationwide R&B strike, “Worry, Worry, Get worried,” in 1952). Houston’s formulation was basic and savagely immediate — he’d honk and wail as hard as he could, from any conceivable placement: on his legs, lying down on his back again, walking the club, etc. His result for the Bihari Brothers’ Crown label (where he was billed as “Outrageous Man from the Tenor Sax”) can be favorably exhilarating: “All Nite Lengthy,” “Blow Joe Blow,” and “Joe’s Eliminated” are herculean types of single-minded sax blasting. Joe Houston continued to be active musically in to the 2000s, emphasizing his blues vocal skill a lot more than previously, until hurting a heart stroke in 2005. He re-emerged and started playing once again for a period thereafter, but retreated from the general public and to the business of relatives and buddies.

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