Podcast appearances and mentions of reggie houston

This week on Radio Active Kids, I'm stoked to interview Sing Along Tim, whose new album Brand New World of Pants is his best yet, in my opinion! Also, new songs by Animal Farm, Claudia Robin Gunn (ft. Little Miss Ann, Suzi Shelton & No Parking Studio!), Lori Henriques & Reggie Houston, The Harmonica Pocket, DARIA, Levity Beet & fleaBITE, Yam On, Charlie Faye & The Fanimals, Fabulous Lemon Drops, Music With Mandy, & Freddy Apple, plus older songs by Draco and the Malfoys & Guess What! Here's the playlist.

Coffeeshop Conversations has returned to the Artichoke Music Café and it's great to be back and just as great to be sitting across from Reggie Houston, saxophonist, vocalist and composer who moved back home to New Orleans a few years back but is making a visit to Portland in anticipation of moving back to his adopted home. We've missed him, his music and his spirit. He is a fountain of knowledge, memories and good will, as you might remember from previous appearances on this podcast when he talked about being in Fats Domino's band, about Dave Bartholomew and lots and lots and lots of things like that. He was showing me pictures and just listen to the names of the people in the picture when I turned on the recorder.

Just a few more weeks until we're back in the Artichoke Music Café. The podcast which goes up on August 19 with Reggie Houston, fresh from New Orleans will mark our return home to Artichoke. The 19th also marks the start of the three day Montavilla Jazz Festival, and as we always do, joining me electronically to talk about the full lineup is one of its curators, specifically Program Director, guitarist/composer Ryan Meagher. Ryan and I are also big baseball fans but we'll save that until I shut off the recorder. Montavilla exists on its own but is greatly influenced in subjects and aims of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. Therefore, here's the non-baseball part of my conversation with Ryan Meagher.

Welcome back to not the Artichoke Music Café. We'll be back there on August 18 and talking with Reggie Houston who will obviously be in Portland. Today I am officially ending further discussion of what did you do during the pandemic. I'm about to talk with singer/pianist/composer Rachel Taylor-Brown, one of my favorite musicians on earth. We should consider ourselves lucky to hear what she has to say because she doesn't do a whole lot of interviews. This being a conversation makes it different but not by much. No, she doesn't have a new album to push and that's fine. She does have a lot of new songs which are not ready for us to hear, but she's ready to tell us about them. I'm calling her now.

I'm counting the days until I am recovered from the back surgery and can get to the Artichoke Café and sit across the table from our podcast guest. That will be on August 16 and it will also mark the return to Portland (for a visit) by Reggie Houston who moved back to New Orleans a couple of years ago. Today marks a Skype return to Portland by Jazz guitarist/composer Margaret Slovak who has had an odyssey which includes eight surgeries on her hand arm and shoulder. She has a new album called Ballad for Brad. Brad being her husband. Title track included here. They live in Austin, Texas. It's a long journey and it's not over. Welcome back Margaret Slovak.

This is a special edition of Coffeeshop Conversations. First of all because it’s our first one at our new location, Artichoke Music at 2007 SE Powell Boulevard. I’d like to thank everyone at Catfish Lou’s for their kind hospitality and we wish them the best in their new location next month. Look for more info on OMN when they make the move. This is also special because Reggie Houston has returned. Last time he was here it was to talk about the life of Fats Domino. Reggie played bari sax in Fat’s band for 20 years. A couple of weeks ago the man who might be called the father of Rock N Roll died, Dave Bartholomew, who wrote and arranged nearly all the music that came out of New Orleans at the dawn of the Rock n Roll era of the 1950’s, including all of Fats Domino and Little Richard’s work. That was Dave’s band on all those tunes. Reggie was very close to Dave, who passed at age 100. When we sat down Reggie pulled out pictures of tours they had made together. He was looking through them when I turned on the recorder.

Writer Terese Marie Mailhot discusses her new memoir “Heart Berries” and the importance of empathy for the indigenous experience, comedian Jason Traeger describes his therapist choices in Portland, program director of the American Culinary Institute Sophie Egan talks about what’s known as the American food psyche, and former Fats Domino band member and saxophonist Reggie Houston performs the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves."

Reggie Fats intro At World Cup Coffee and Tea for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. When Fats Domino died at the end of October, I first heard about it from New Orleans’ Reggie Houston, now a Portlander but for twenty years, the baritone sax player in Fats’ band. It hit him hard. It still does. I waited a few months before I finally asked a couple of weeks ago if he was ready to talk about it. He said yes. What follows is an extended episode but which barely touches on the life of Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew and Reggie’s time in the band, but it’s an oral history that’ll knock you out. What was life on the road like? Who was the enigma of Fats Domino? Who was the real king of Rock N Roll? And on and on. A heartfelt thanks to Reggie Houston for sharing all of this with us.

February 23, 2017 Welcome back to the coffeeshop…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. It’s another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. If you were in New Orleans you would have been celebrating Carnival for weeks now. Mardi Gras is coming up on Fat Tuesday, February 28. But did you know that there’s also Fat Monday. It’s called Lundi Gras and here to talk about it is New Orleans native saxophonist Reggie Houston. He’ll be playing a Lundi Gras show at the Lake Theater in Lake Oswego. We’ll find out all about that and learn some stuff about Lundi Gras I bet you never knew. Hey now! Get your beads out and listen to the real thing. Reggie Houston.

January 29, 2015 This Coffeeshop Conversation is special. For what Reggie Houston has to say for himself, but what he really says for all of us. Once again we were in the Cupping Room at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. Not that all of these conversations aren’t revealing, they’re designed to be, but today's was unexpectedly so. Saxophonist Reggie Houston, a New Orleans native, who moved to Portland the year before Katrina, and who played in Fat’s Domino’s band for twenty years became a very close friend and collaborator with the late Janice Scroggins. Her death affected many folks but I didn’t know how close they had become and how her death affected him until he sat down to talk with me. I thought we were just going to have fun and bullshit as friends like we usually do. Not today. Listen to what happened when I punched record.