Highly acclaimed post-bop jazz alto saxophonist and prominent educator Bobby Watson, comes to the club for an outstanding evening of music. Heralding from Kansas, he attended university with 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, and after 4 successful years Watson served as the musical director for the acclaimed group.
Max Roach, Branford Marsalis, Louis Hayes and many others sought to work with Watson after his tenure at “University of Blakey” had come to an end. Further, 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.
In addition to his work as leader of Horizon (An acoustic answer to the Messengers), 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 and tenor saxophonist Rich Rothenberg. Since taking up residency in New York, Watson has been heavily involved in education programs across America, helping to nurture talent for the future of Jazz, and appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either leader, co-leader or in a supporting role.