Trumpeter Calvin Owens Dead at 78

By I Feb. 22, 2008

Trumpeter Calvin Owens, former B.B. King band leader and arranger, died of kidney failure early Thursday morning. Owens was 78.

A native of Houston, Calvin “The Maestro” Owens’ recording credits included work as an artist and producer for Memphis’ Kiondict recording company, A&R director/studio musician for Peacock and as an arranger for A&M recording studios in Los Angeles.

Named after the area where he grew up near Sumpter, Texas, the Sawdust Alley Preservation Foundation, founded by Owens, was a non-profit organization dedicated to blues preservation.

Owens was a fixture at SugarHill Studios, beginning in the late 1940s with blues legend Lightnin’ Hopkins and in the early 1960s with singer Joe Hinton.

He returned to the studios in 1994 after more than a decade in Belgium to record parts of True Blue. Owens would record and mix another eight blues albums, two Spanish-language albums and one hip-hop album with chief engineer and friend, Andy Bradley.

Owens arranged two tracks and played on three tracks of the forthcoming Johnny Bush album, Young at Heart, featuring Willie Nelson and Ray Price.

Owens was heralded by many and worked with musicians spanning a myriad of genres. Among his recordings are tracks featuring Shelly Carrol, Otis Clay, Archie Bell, Arnett Cobb, B.B. King, Conrad Johnson, David “Fathead” Newman, Marvin Sparks, Keith Vivens, Barbara Lynn, Pete Mayes and Rue Davis.