Julius Watkins
Encyclopedia
Julius Watkins was an American
jazz
musician
, and one of the first jazz French horn
players. He won the Down Beat
critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for "miscellaneous instrument" with French horn named as the instrument.
Watkins was born in Detroit, Michigan
. He started playing French horn when he was nine years old, having played the trumpet
, the recognized jazz instrument, for the Ernie Fields
Orchestra in the mid-1940s. By the late 1940s, however, he had played some French horn solos on Kenny Clarke
and Babs Gonzales' records. After moving to New York City
, Watkins studied for three years at the Manhattan School of Music
. He started appearing in small-group jazz sessions, including two led by Thelonious Monk
, featuring on "Friday the 13th" on the album Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
(1954).
Watkins recorded with numerous jazz greats, including John Coltrane
, Freddie Hubbard
, Charles Mingus
, Miles Davis
and Gil Evans
, Phil Woods
, Clark Terry
, Johnny Griffin
, Randy Weston
, and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. He co-led, with Charlie Rouse
, the group Les Jazz Modes from 1956 to 1959, and he toured with Quincy Jones
and his band from 1959 to 1961.
He died in Short Hills, New Jersey
at the age of 55. From 1994 to 1998, an annual "Julius Watkins Jazz Horn Festival" was held in New York, beginning at the Knitting Factory, (NY Times, January 27, 1994, "A One-Night French Horn Festival") honoring his legacy. http://world.std.com/~mbk/mbk_jazz_resources.htm After a ten-year break, another "Julius Watkins Festival" was held on October 3, 2009, in Seattle, Washington
, at Cornish College of the Arts
.
Note: the above two records were consolidated into one upon compact disc
re-release.
With Manny Albam
With Gil Mellé
With Thelonious Monk
With Chico O'Farrill
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, and one of the first jazz French horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
players. He won the Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for "miscellaneous instrument" with French horn named as the instrument.
Watkins was born in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. He started playing French horn when he was nine years old, having played the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, the recognized jazz instrument, for the Ernie Fields
Ernie Fields
Ernie Fields was an African American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader. He first became known for leading the Royal Entertainers, which were based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and toured along a circuit stretching from Kansas City, Kansas, to Dallas, Texas.-Early life and career:Fields was born...
Orchestra in the mid-1940s. By the late 1940s, however, he had played some French horn solos on Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
and Babs Gonzales' records. After moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Watkins studied for three years at the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
. He started appearing in small-group jazz sessions, including two led by Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, featuring on "Friday the 13th" on the album Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins is an album by jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk featuring his final recordings for the Prestige label performed by Monk with a quintet featuring Sonny Rollins, Julius Watkins, Percy Heath, and Willie Jones, a trio featuring Heath and Art Blakey and a...
(1954).
Watkins recorded with numerous jazz greats, including John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
and Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
, Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
, Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
, Randy Weston
Randy Weston
Randy Weston , is an American jazz pianist and composer, of Jamaican parentage.-Biography:Weston studied classical piano as a child. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he ran a restaurant that was frequented by many of the leading bebop musicians...
, and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. He co-led, with Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse
Charlie Rouse was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by the collaboration for more than ten years with Thelonious Monk.- Biography :...
, the group Les Jazz Modes from 1956 to 1959, and he toured with Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
and his band from 1959 to 1961.
He died in Short Hills, New Jersey
Short Hills, New Jersey
Short Hills is an unincorporated area located within the township of Millburn, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a popular commuter town for residents who work in New York City...
at the age of 55. From 1994 to 1998, an annual "Julius Watkins Jazz Horn Festival" was held in New York, beginning at the Knitting Factory, (NY Times, January 27, 1994, "A One-Night French Horn Festival") honoring his legacy. http://world.std.com/~mbk/mbk_jazz_resources.htm After a ten-year break, another "Julius Watkins Festival" was held on October 3, 2009, in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, at Cornish College of the Arts
Cornish College of the Arts
-Library:The library at Cornish College specializes in art, dance, design, music, performance production, and theatre. As of 2011 it holds 4700 CDs, 40,000 books, has 2,200 videos, and subscribes to 154 periodicals...
.
As leader
- Julius Watkins Sextet (Blue NoteBlue Note RecordsBlue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, 1955) - Julius Watkins Sextet Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1956)
Note: the above two records were consolidated into one upon compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
re-release.
As sideman
With Stan KentonStan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
- Cuban Fire!Cuban Fire!Cuban Fire! is an album recorded by Stan Kenton and his orchestra in 1956. This has become one of the most influential Latin jazz, large ensemble recordings of all time; it was a first for the Kenton big band in terms of popularity, style, and overall album theme...
(Capitol RecordsCapitol RecordsCapitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, 1956)
With Manny Albam
Manny Albam
Manny Albam was a jazz baritone saxophone player who eventually put the instrument down in favour of a long and respected career as an arranger, writer, and teacher.-Biography:The son of Lithuanian immigrants, who was born in the Dominican Republic when his mother went into labour en route...
- Jazz Goes to the MoviesJazz Goes to the MoviesJazz Goes to the Movies is an album by American jazz arranger and conductor Manny Albam recorded in 1962 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!Impulse! RecordsImpulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...
, 1962)
With Gil Mellé
Gil Melle
Gil Mellé was an American artist, jazz musician and film composer.In the 1950s, Mellé's paintings and sculptures were shown in New York galleries and he created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins...
- Gil's GuestsGil's GuestsGil's Guests is an album by American saxophonist Gil Mellé recorded in 1956 and released on the Prestige label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 3 stars and stated "Baritonist Gil Melle's recordings are usually a bit unusual and this CD reissue is no exception.....
(PrestigePrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
, 1963)
With Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
- Thelonious Monk and Sonny RollinsThelonious Monk and Sonny RollinsThelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins is an album by jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk featuring his final recordings for the Prestige label performed by Monk with a quintet featuring Sonny Rollins, Julius Watkins, Percy Heath, and Willie Jones, a trio featuring Heath and Art Blakey and a...
(Prestige, 1954)
With Chico O'Farrill
Chico O'Farrill
Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill was a composer-arranger best known for his work in the Latin idiom, although he also composed straight-ahead jazz pieces and even symphonic works....
- Nine FlagsNine FlagsNine Flags is an album by Cuban composer-arranger Chico O'Farrill featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1966)
External links
- [ All music]
- Downbeat bio
- Hornplanet's Jazz cafe
- The Jazz Horn