PDX Jazz is excited to announce a FREE community event featuring Reggie Houston and Friends featuring Mike Elson
A seventh-generation New Orleanian, Reggie Houston was born on July 2, 1947, to Ralph Houston, a pianist and acoustic bassist, and Margarete Houston, an educator and social activist. Reggie embraced education and followed in his parents footsteps to become an arts education advocate, teacher, and world-renowned saxophonist.
Reggie was inspired to study saxophone at age 10, after seeing Ray Charles play alto sax at Lincoln Beach Amusement Park, where Fats Domino also performed during Reggie's childhood. Years later, Reggie would share the stage with both musical giants, and spend 22 years as a member of Fats Domino's band, before moving to Portland, Oregon in 2004.
Reggie’s devotion to his craft, and to sharing his deep knowledge of Louisiana’s history, musicians, and musical genres, stems from a time-honored New Orleans tradition of arts education. Nurtured by his teachers—musical giants like Edward “Kidd” Jordan, Johnny Fernandez, Danny Barker, and Alvin Batiste—the latter of whom learned at the knee of legendary musician Sidney Bechet, referred to by Duke Ellington as “the very epitome of jazz,” Reggie has now picked up the mantle to pass that knowledge on to future generations of musicians.
When funk first developed, exploding onto the scene, Reggie was there—not as an observer, but as a 13 year-old musician playing his first professional gigs with legendary keyboardist David Batiste Sr. and The Gladiators, widely accepted as one of the preeminent and pioneering bands of funk.
Reggie knows the music. It is in his blood. He can trace the many, varied styles and influences of southeast Louisiana music all the way back to pre-colonial Africa. It is this knowledge, coupled with the strong arts education tradition of his hometown that gave rise to Reggie’s newest project, Anonymous Legends: A History of New Orleans Music—the culmination of Reggie’s life’s work.
This event is part of the 2024 Biamp Portland Jazz Festival presented by PDX Jazz