Houston Jazz Hero
Tierney Malone first encountered the classic Texas tenor sound of Arnett Cobb in 1989 at an opening at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. Cobb died not long after, but Malone struck up a friendship with his daughter, Lizette Cobb, who expanded his appreciation and knowledge of the history of jazz in Houston and its roots in the Jim Crow South.
Cobb’s big, soulful tenor can now be heard at the beginning of Malone’s radio program, “Houston Jazz Spotlight” (heard weekly on KPFT-FM in Houston), which focuses on Houston-bred musicians from Swing Era giants Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson to 21st-century prime-time players Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, and Eric Harland.
“Celebrating jazz is a part of celebrating the way our ancestors dealt with the struggles that they confronted and that we still confront,” Malone told The Houston Defender, Houston’s black-owned news source. “If you listen to my radio show, it’s basically a story about our tribe now, and the struggles we deal with, to a jazz soundtrack.”
Malone, 61, was born in Los Angeles and raised on the Fulf Coast in Alabama and Mississippi. He arrived in Houston in 1982 to study visual arts at Texas Southern University. He wasn’t intending to stick around. The plan was to either head back to Los Angeles or push on to New York City, a mecca for aspiring visual artists. He now says coming to Houston was the best thing that ever happened to him.
In 2016, Malone transformed a Project Row House–a community art project in Houston’s Third Row–into The Jazz Church. With posters, records, photos, and paintings on the walls, it’s a jazz museum in the daytime that mutates into a performance space at night. He’s curated numerous multimedia installations.
Malone traces his storyteller roots to his grandmother in Mississippi, who kept the lore of their family alive in the griot tradition of West Africa. That family historian role has been passed on to Malone, who considers Houston’s Third Ward to be his extended family. “I’ve never had to leave Houston to meet people who’ve been instrumental to me making art and supporting what I do. Being part of the Third Ward community is one thing that I am greatly thankful for.” His myriad efforts to preserve and extend this precious Gulf Coast legacy make Malone a 2026 Jazz Hero.
—Rick Mitchell, JJA Board Member
