Biography
From the mid-1970s into the early 1980s, and on scattered occasions since, Ernie Watts took part in numerous commercial recording sessions, prompting some observers to dismiss him early as a pop/R&B tenorman. His chief inspiration, however, remained John Coltrane, and later performances established him as a forceful, authoritative jazz improviser whose personal sheets-of-sound method is paired with a singular, soulful timbre. After completing his studies at Berklee, he completed a significant engagement in Buddy Rich’s big band from 1966 to 1968 before settling in Los Angeles. He performed with the orchestras of Oliver Nelson and Gerald Wilson, appeared on a 1969 date with Jean-Luc Ponty, and served as a staff musician at NBC, appearing regularly with the Tonight Show Band. His own albums of the 1970s and early 1980s leaned toward pop material, with 1982’s Chariots of Fire achieving strong sales, while he frequently recorded alongside Lee Ritenour and Stanley Clarke and cut a 1972 session with Cannonball Adderley, one of his idols. From the mid-1980s onward, however, his work assumed greater jazz substance once he joined Charlie Haden’s Quartet West and began issuing direct quartet sessions for JVC. Ernie Watts has become one of the most commanding tenormen, exercising complete command of the horn and delivering intensity together with passion and taste in every setting.