Bobby Watson


Robert Michael Watson Jr., known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator.

Music career

Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He attended the University of Miami at the same time as Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, and Bruce Hornsby. He graduated in 1975, moved to New York City, and became music director for the Jazz Messengers from 1977 to 1981. After leaving the band, he was productive as a session musician, recording with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Max Roach, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, and Carmen Lundy. He formed the band Bobby Watson & Horizon with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, with whom he played throughout the 1980s and '90s.
Watson led a group known as the High Court of Swing, the sixteen-piece Tailor-Made Big Band, 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 a song for the soundtrack to the movie A Bronx Tale.
A resident of New York for most of his professional life, he served as a member of the adjunct faculty and taught saxophone privately at William Paterson University from 1985 to 1986 and the Manhattan School of Music from 1996 to 1999. He is involved with the Thelonious Monk Institute's annual 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. As the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, while still managing a worldwide performing schedule, Watson's ensembles at UMKC have received several awards.

Discography

As leader

With the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet
With Kamal Abdul-Alim
With Art Blakey
With Ricky Ford
  • Interpretations
With Louis Hayes
  • Light and Lively
With John Hicks
  • Naima's Love Song
  • Piece for My Peace
With Horizon
  • No Question About It
  • The Inventor
  • Post-Motown Bop
  • Gumbo
With the Jazz Tribe
  • The Jazz Tribe
  • The Next Step
  • Everlasting
With Steve Nelson
  • Live Session vols 1 and 2
With Sam Rivers
  • Colours
With Superblue
  • Superblue
With the Tailor Made Big Band
With Jack Walrath'