Calvin Owens Jazz & Blues Orchestra
An inventive and creative trumpeter, bandleader, and composer/arranger, Calvin Owens spent many years as musical director with B.B. King's various touring bands. But beginning in the late '90s, he led his own bands and recorded under his own name. Born on April 23, 1929, Owens grew up in Houston's Fifth Ward neighborhood, also known as Sawdust Alley because of a nearby sawmill. He became interested in learning to play the trumpet after hearing his New Orleans-raised mother talk about Louis Armstrong. He worked at a local bowling alley to save enough money to buy his first trumpet. As a 13-year-old, he took his first few trumpet lessons, at 25 cents per lesson, from a local trumpeter, Charles "Papa Charlie" Lewis. Fortunately, Owens had a conscientious band director in high school, Sammy Harris, who took a bright, ambitious student and suggested to the young Owens that one day he too could be a band director for a high-school band. Harris promoted Owens to student...