Henrietta Robinson, vocal musician and native Houstonian, began playing piano at the age of seven with her father as her first piano teacher. She went on to minor in music at Huston-Tillotson University. She has performed numerous musical theatre works, dramas and other stage productions, most notably: Company, Anyone Can Whistle, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, No Exit, No Place to Be Somebody, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, and Theatrilogy: Lester Young, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, invoking the spirit of John Coltrane.
In Boston, Henrietta hosted the Friday night edition of the Jazz Gallery, WGBH-89.7 FM Radio for 11 years. In addition to freelancing as a jazz musician, for five years she produced the annual concert, Women in Jazz Know the Score, highlighting female jazz artists as bandleaders, arrangers, composers, and instrumentalists. She has shared the bandstand with jazz luminaries from Kenny Burrell to Ricky Ford to Grover Washington, Jr., and served as artist-in-residence at the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
Louie Carrington, vocalist and pianist, is from Houston. In 1967, Louie’s high school singing group (The Soul Meditations) was recorded by Skipper Lee Frazier one year before he produced Archie Bell and the Drells. In the summer of 1969, Louie’s house band at the Cinder Club played behind Johnny Taylor, Lou Rawls and many other top named acts.
In 1971, Louie received his BA in Music from Huston-Tillotson University. Also in 1971, Louie’s jazz group performed for the after party of the Longhorn Jazz Festival and jammed with Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley and other jazz greats. In 1985 he began touring Europe and opened shows for Betty Carter and other jazz artists working overseas. In 2001, he opened and performed two shows in Morocco with Nina Simone. He has done a number of Jazz and Gospel concerts to support Huston-Tillotson Alumni Association and is currently producing a CD for the Huston-Tillotson Concert Choir.
