Houston Chronicl

Saxophonist Houston Person and bassist Ron Carter have a duo partnership that goes back at least as far as their two 1990 recordings, Something in Common and Now's the Time! Since those albums, the legendary artists have released several more duo collaborations, each one a thoughtful and minimalist production showcasing their masterful command of jazz standards, blues, and bop. The duo's 2016 effort, the aptly titled Chemistry, is no exception and once again finds Person and Carter communing over a well-curated set of jazz standards. As on their previous albums, Chemistry is a deceptively simple conceit; just two jazz journeymen playing conversational duets on well-known jazz songs.

It's only been seven years between Just Whitney and 2009's I Look to You, not even Houston's longest time between albums, but it feels much, much longer, her glory days obscured in hazy memories of lost luster chiefly deriving from a bad marriage with Bobby Brown, chronicled in an embarrassing reality show for Bravo in 2004. I Look to You attempts to wash this all away with something of a return to roots – a celebration of Houston's deep disco beginnings, tempered with a few skyscraping ballads designed to showcase her soaring voice. Houston's rocky decade isn't ignored, but it isn't explored, either: songs allude to Whitney's strength, her willpower as a survivor struggling through some unnamed struggle – enough for listeners to fill in the blanks, either with their own experience or their imaginings of Houston's life.

Released in 1999 for Fantasy's Legends of Acid Jazz series, this CD unites two of Houston Person's classic Prestige sessions, 1968's Soul Dance and 1970s Truth!, on a single 78-minute CD. Soul Dance is heard in its entirety, but because the CD didn't have enough room to hold everything from Truth!, the track "If I Ruled the World" ended up being sacrificed. The personnel on the sessions differs - while Soul Dance employed organist Billy Gardner, guitarist Boogaloo Joe Jones, and drummer Frankie Jones, Truth! united Person with Frankie Jones, guitarist Billy Butler, electric bassist Bob Bushnell, and percussionist Buddy Caldwell. But the albums are fairly similar in their outlook. Both of them are quite accessible, and both emphasize Person's strong points: funky boogaloos, gritty blues, standards, and sentimental ballads…