Customer Reviews

My Romance

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Houston Person can wail with the best of them, but he also may be the best tenor saxophonist since Ben Webster when it comes to presenting soulful, romantic ballads. In just under an hour, he works his magic on nine standards, including "But Beautiful," "Laura," "Time After Time," "Mean to Me" and the title tune. Richard Wyands, Ray Drummond and Kenny Washington provide the rhythm on piano, bass and drums. Another late-night listen from High Note Records!

If you like the standard American song book, and the ballad then Houston Person's CD, My Romance will stay in your CD player a long time. This is a CD the late nite jazz radio stations will be playing for some time.

Houston Person has been on the scene for a long time, ebracing both jazz and R&B. Houston Person plays the tenor with lots of soul, sparing notes when needed and giving us lots of those mellow notes when they are needed. His back up piano, Richard Wands, is an acomplished supportive player, filling in nicely.

My only critisism is that the CD is about as long as an old LP. There are nine songs, I wish there were at least twelve. Maybe Houston is saving up for another CD of these beautiful ballads.

Even though I normally prefer more uptempo stuff, "My Romance" is one of the best jazz albums I've bought in recent years. Every cut is a winner.

I love jazz, but tend to prefer melodic ballads or renditions of old standards. This CD easily met both those criteria and far surpassed my expectations. Each song is a winner. I've only had this CD a couple of weeks, but it's already one of my favorites.

Excellent late night jazz. Sax mixed very prominently but a great disc if not exactly adventurous.

This CD has only two or three tracks that I would categorize as "relaxing" or "romantic." On some tracks, the sax is really loud and irritating or has too fast of a tempo, and ruins your mood if you are already in a relaxed and romantic mood. I just can't see how this CD got 4- or 5-star reviews.

If you really want to hear some romantic/relaxing sax, try the two great CDs by Ben Webster titled Quiet Now: Until Tonight and Ben Webster for Lovers, and also At Ease with Coleman Hawkins, all at a much lower price. Then decide for yourself what romantic/relaxing sax really sounds like. When I play these three CDs, friends ask me where they can get a copy, but when I played this CD by Houston Person, two friends at a weekend dinner asked me to change it because it was ruining the mood of the occasion. So it is not only my individual opinion.