Ernest James "Ernie" Watts
(born October 23, 1945) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone (tenor, alto and soprano) and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist. He has also toured with the Rolling Stones, joining them on their 1981 tour and also appearing with them in the 1982 film Let's Spend the Night Together
.
He is noted for playing the "The Mystery Horn" (actually a Conn straight necked C Melody Saxophone) solo on Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo
in 1972.
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ERNIE WATTS TICKETS
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Biography
Watts was born in
Norfolk,
Virginia. He began playing saxophone at thirteen and later attended the
Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He toured with
Buddy Rich in the mid-1960s, occupying one of the tenor saxophone chairs, with
Lou Marini occupying the other. Later, he visited Africa with
Oliver Nelson's group. He began working with Haden in the 1980s and won
Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist. Ernie also was also a featured soloist on many of
Marvin Gaye's original albums on
Motown during the 1970s.
Watts first met Charlie Haden in relation to work he did for films. An early film effort was playing the saxophone on the
Grease
soundtrack. He also played
clarinet on
The Color Purple
soundtrack and saxophone on the soundtrack for
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
.
[1]
Ernie Watts also was featured in the
Windows XP edition Jazz preview. The song he was featured in was "Highway Blues". He plays
Keilwerth Saxophones.
In early 2008, Watts'
Analog Man
won the award in the 7th Annual
Independent Music Awards for Best Jazz Album.
[2]
Discography
- Music
1971 - Carole King (Ode Records)
- Let's Get It On
1973 - Marvin Gaye (Tamla)
- I Want You
1976 - Marvin Gaye (Tamla)
- Here, My Dear
1977 - Marvin Gaye (Tamla)
- Inner conflicts
1978 - Billy Cobham (Atlantic)
- Words and music
1979 - Billy Alessi and Bobby Alessi (A&M)
- Secret combination
1981 - Randy Crawford (Warner Bros. Records)
- Long time friends
1982 - Billy and Bobby Alessi (Qwest)
- Walk a fine line
1983 - Paul Anka (CBS)
- Time exposure
1984 - Stanley Clarke (CBS)
- Musician
1985 - Don Grusin (Qwest Records)
- Sanctuary
1986 - Quincy Jones (Qwest Records)
- The soul of jazz Vol. 2
1995 (Gitanes )
- The Art of the Song
1999 - Charlie Haden Quartet West
Charts : Notre monde à nous (Klaxon 1991)
References
- {{imdb name|id=0915139}}
- Independent Music Awards - 7th Annual Winners