MUSIC

Main Street Crossing presents the Ezra Charles Christmas Review. Special Guest Diana Landry.

Since 1987 Ezra Charles (pictured, Photo Credit: Grady Carter) and the Works had been subtly infusing the concept "Houston's Band" into the city's consciousness, without ever mentioning it by name. At the 2003 Thanksgiving Day Parade, the CBS affiliate television broadcast anchor Greg Hurst officially bestowed this title on them to about a million viewers. "Darn appropriate," proclaimed a fan the next day.

With their own sound and repertoire (mostly from their six CD's), this band lays down a rockin' groove that defies simple descriptions, but is firmly rooted in every type of music that ever came out of this part of Texas: Boogie-Woogie, Swing, Rockabilly and Blues. Famous for having girls in the horn section and flashy piano antics, Ezra has never had his songs be the first thing the audience noticed, but ultimately they have got to be the reason for the band's remarkable staying power.

Ezra Charles is Houston's best-known keyboardist, winning the Houston Press Readers Poll Award in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2004 for Best Piano/Keyboards and similar polls in Public News, an alternative Houston paper, in 1988, 1989 and 1990.