Bobby Watson

All Music Guide:

Saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator Bobby Watson grew up in Kansas City, KS. As a consequence, his playing is steeped in the roadhouse blues tradition of his native city. He got his formal education at the University of Miami, where his fellow students included Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorious, and Bruce Hornsby. The college has a distinguished, long-running, and well-respected jazz performance program. After he was graduated in 1975, he moved to New York City, the jazz capitol of the world, and soon found employment as musical director for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Watson stuck with Blakey's group from 1977 to 1981, and then pursued session and tour work with more vigor, working with drummers Louis Hayes and Max Roach, saxophonists George Coleman and Branford Marsalis, multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers, guitarist Carlos Santana and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. He's also worked with a who's-who in the jazz vocal world, including Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, and Carmen Lundy.

Finally he launched his own group, Bobby Watson & Horizon with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, and they recorded for Blue Note and Columbia Records. Watson and Horizon were in demand and on the road from the mid-'80s to the late '90s, and he still performs with the group, with differing sidemen. Watson has amassed nearly 30 recordings as a bandleader and he's a veteran sessionman, having recorded on more than 100 other recordings. As a composer, he has recorded more than 100 of his original compositions, and his arrangements for big bands have circulated internationally.

Watson, basing himself alternately in New York City and Kansas City, has been a first-call musician for more than three decades now, and he also served as a member of the adjunct faculty at William Paterson University in the mid-'80s and at the Manhattan School of Music from 1996-1999.

In 2000, he was selected as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri Distinguished Professor of Jazz Studies, and he's been working at the University of Missouri/Kansas City, balancing live concerts around the world with his teaching responsibilities. Since 2000, Watson's recordings under his own name include three excellent releases for the Palmetto Records label, based in New York City. They include Live & Learn (2002), Horizon Reassembled (2004), and From the Heart (2008).

Wikipedia:

Bobby Watson (born Lawrence, Kansas, August 23, 1953) is an American post-bop jazz alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator. Watson now has 26 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role. Watson has recorded more than 100 original compositions and his long-time publisher.

Biography

Watson grew up in Bonner Springs, Kansas and Kansas City, Kansas. He attended the University of Miami along with fellow students Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius and Bruce Hornsby. After graduating in 1975, he moved to New York City and joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. The Jazz Messengers, sometimes referred to as the "University of Blakey," served as the ultimate "postgraduate school" for ambitious young players. He performed with the Jazz Messengers from 1977 to 1981, eventually becoming the musical director for the group.

After completing his tenure as a Jazz Messenger, Watson became a much-sought after musician, working along the way with many notable musicians, including: drummers Max Roach and Louis Hayes, fellow saxophonists George Coleman and Branford Marsalis, multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. In addition to working with a variety of instrumentalists, Watson has served in a supporting role for a number of distinguished and stylistically varied vocalists including: Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, and Carmen Lundy, and has performed as a sideman with Carlos Santana, George Coleman, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Bob Belden and John Hicks.

Later, in association with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, Watson started the first edition of Horizon, an acoustic quintet modeled after the Jazz Messengers but with its own slightly more modern twist. The group recorded several titles for the Blue Note and Columbia record labels.

In addition to his work as leader of Horizon, Watson also led a group known as the High court of Swing (a tribute to the music of Johnny Hodges), The Tailor-Made Big Band (16 pieces in all) and is a founding member of the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, an all-horn, four-piece group with alto saxophonist Ed Jackson, tenor saxophonist Rich Rothenberg, and baritone saxophonist Jim Hartog. Watson also composed an original song for the soundtrack of Robert De Niro's A Bronx Tale (1993).

A resident of New York for most of his professional life, Watson served as a member of the adjunct faculty and taught private saxophone at William Patterson University from 1985 to 1986 and the Manhattan School of Music from 1996 to 1999. He is currently involved with the Thelonious Monk Institute's yearly "Jazz in America" high school outreach program.

In 2000, he was approached to return to his native midwestern surroundings on the Kansas-Missouri border. Watson was selected as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri, Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies. The past six years he has served as the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music although he still manages to balance live engagements around the world with his teaching responsibilities. Watson's ensembles at UMKC have garnered several awards and national recognition.