Houston blues legend Calvin Owens, a trumpet player, conductor, and arranger best known for his tenure as B.B. King’s bandleader in the 1950s, 70s, and 80s, and for his successful solo career thereafter, died on Thursday from his home in Houston. He was 78 years old.

Owens is widely considered to be one of the blues’ finest trumpeters. Born in Houston, Texas in 1929, Owens was raised in the city’s Fifth Ward, where he took lessons from Charles “Papa Charlie” Lewis. The young boy who would later be called “Maestro” by his fellow musicians went on to become the leader of his high school band and a regular on the Houston area blues scene, at a time when horn players were often the featured soloists in Texas blues bands.

In 1953 Owens hit the road as B.B. King’s bandleader. After spending four years as musical director for the King of the Blues, Owens returned to his native Houston and started working for Maxwell House Coffee, including a stint as A&R Director for Peacock Records. Owens continued to play extensively around Houston, and in 1978 reclaimed his post as leader of B.B. King’s band, a gig he would continue in for the next six years. During that time he played the Apollo Theater and was the arranger, conductor, and featured trumpet soloist on King’s 1984 Grammy-winning album Blues ‘N’ Jazz.

Owens started his own production company and record label, Sawdust Alley Records (named after the area in the Fifth Ward where he grew up), while living in Belgium. He is one of the only, if not the only, former B.B. King band member to have a successful solo career after leaving King’s employ. Traveling with a massive band of his own (often numbering in excess of twenty players), Owens forged a path for big band blues into the twenty-first century. His 1994 solo debut True Blue featured old boss King along with fellow blues legend Johnny Copeland, and Owens would later go on to release excellent albums like I Ain’t Gonna Be Yo’ Dog No Mo’, The House is Burnin’, and 2007’s Houston Is The Place To Be. Much like the genre-bending work of Fat Possum recording artist R.L. Burnside, Owens was known for his forward-looking projects that fused big band blues with contemporary hip hop and Latino music.

Just prior to his death, Owens finished recording a new solo project as well as an album with Willie Nelson, both which are scheduled for release later this year. A public memorial service is set for Monday, February 25 from 6-9 PM at Johnson’s Funeral Home, located at 5730 Calhoun in Houston.