Calvin Owens Passes At 78!

Calvin Owens

b. April 23, 1929 - d. February 21, 2008

Legendary bandleader and trumpeter Calvin Owens succumbed to kidney failure today. He was 78. Owens is best known for being a bandleader for B. B. King in the early fifties while King recorded his famous sides at the Kent label in Texas.

Owens, born in New Orleans Fifth Ward, migrated with his mother to Houston, Texas, where at thirteen he began playing trumpet. Joining a vaudeville show after high school, Owens later met B. B. in 1953 then toured and led his band till 1957, when he returned to Houston. Upon his return, Owens became a songwriter/arranger/session player/A&R rep for the famed Peacock Record Company under the infamous Don Robey. During that period, Owens recorded with T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn, Junior Parker, and David "Fathead" Newman to name a few.

Owens recorded continually while playing all around the Houston area for many years, refusing to be pidgeon-holed as a jazz and blues musician. Owens would later return to touring with B. B. King from 1978 through 1984, notching a Grammy as the bandleader for King on the album Blues 'n' Jazz. Owens would then move to Belgium where he stayed and recorded sporadically for a decade before returning to Houston in 1993.

This time, Owens would record not only blues but country music, Spanish music and Hip-Hop. His numerous abilities to fluidly cross between genres can be heard in any number of his subsequent releases. Two recordings in the blues genre garnered him critical acclaim for his solo album, Ain't Gonna Be Yo' Dog No Mo' in which Owens is coupled with several younger blues artists and for his bandleader work on his own label, Sawdust Alley Records' Trudy Lynn with the Calvin Owens Orchestra.

Owens won several instrumentalist nominations from the BMA for his work on trumpet. Last year, Owens released the Spanish album, La Myjer que Cante Blues, a collaboration with Evelyn Rubio. In 2007, Owens also recorded and arranged a country album with legends Willie Nelson, Ray Price and Johnny Bush.

Diagnosed with liver cancer a few years prior, his health had continually deteriorated after subsequent surgeries to remove tumors. The latest surgery which took place several weeks ago weakened his condition from which he never recovered. "The Maestro" as he was called, has a long recording history and influence that will shine on for years to come.

Andrew Dansby
The Houston Chronicle