Biography
Pete Souders, a Philadelphia-based hard bop saxophonist, has owned one of the city’s premier jazz venues, Ortleib’s Jazz Haus, since acquiring it in 1987 and has performed there alongside prominent local figures such as Shirley Scott, Mickey Roker and Bobby Durham, each of whom appeared regularly at the club. Born and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, he began studying clarinet in childhood and switched to saxophone at age fourteen. His primary influences encompass Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt and Lucky Thompson. In 1966 he relocated nearer to Philadelphia and pursued a mathematics degree at Ursinus College in Collegeville. Throughout the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, Souders supported himself as a computer programmer in the Philadelphia region while performing jazz and R&B engagements two or three nights weekly. He changed direction upon purchasing Ortleib’s in 1987. By booking mostly Philadelphia musicians, he performed with such residents as trumpeter John Swana, tenor saxophonists Bootsie Barnes, Larry McKenna and Jimmy Oliver, vocalist Lou Lanza, and pianist Sam Dockerty, a former Jazz Messenger. Notably, two frequent drummers at the club, Mickey Roker and Bobby Durham, had each backed Ella Fitzgerald. Out-of-town artists with whom Souders shared the bandstand during their Philadelphia visits included Al Grey, Cecil Payne, Eric Alexander, Ralph Bowen and Tim Warfield; George Benson and Branford Marsalis also sat in at Ortleib’s on separate occasions. Although he regards the tenor saxophone as his principal instrument, Souders has regularly doubled on alto, soprano and baritone saxophones during performances at the venue.
Albums