Calvin Owens

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 director of the high-school band. After he graduated from Wheatley High School and after several years of playing in Houston's then-lively blues club scene, Owens joined guitarist and bandleader B.B. King on his tour bus in 1953. He stayed on the road with King's orchestra for four years, returning to Houston with the idea that he would finish his college education at Texas Southern University. That didn't happen, and Owens was called back to working in the clubs -- the gigs were there -- and working in the local Maxwell House Coffee factory to support his family. His nights were free, so he could play music in clubs and keep his chops together while earning the income needed at the factory to raise a family. In 1978, Owens rejoined King's band and stayed on the road, 200 nights a year, until 1984. When Owens...