Today on the Houston Jazz Spotlight we will be spotlighting a cat that master crooner, Horace Grigsby hipped me to, alto saxophonist, crooner, bandleader and composer, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson. In 'The Autobiography of Malcom X' written by Alex Haley in chapter 5, 'Harlemite' Malcom speakes fondly of his friend Eddie Vinson and jokes about how Eddie lost his hair and became known as 'Cleanhead'. Another cool fact about Brother Vinson is that he hired a young altoist saxophonist name John Coltrane to join his band and gave him his first tenor saxophone. The master pianist and educator, Barry Harris just recently passed, today he would have been 92 years old. We will show the musical connections Brother Harris had with Houston.
The Houston Jazz Spotlight is a labor of love by Visual Artist, Jazz Historian, and DJ, Tierney L. Malone.