- Ernie Watts
Ernie Watts (born Ernest James Watts on
October 23 ,1945 inNorfolk, Virginia ) is an Americanjazz andrhythm and blues musician. He playssaxophone (tenor, alto and soprano) andflute . He might be best known for his work withCharlie Haden 's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist. He has also toured with theRolling Stones , joining them on their 1981 tour.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.He began playing saxophone at thirteen and later attended the
Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He toured withBuddy Rich in the mid-1960s, occupying one of the tenor saxophone chairs, withLou Marini occupying the other. Later, he visited Africa withOliver Nelson 's group. He began working with Haden in the 1980s and wonGrammy Award s as an instrumentalist.He first met 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 "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" soundtrack. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0915139/] Ernie Watts also was featured in the Windows XP edition Jazz preview. The song he was featured in was "Highway Blues".
External links
* [http://www.erniewatts.com/ Ernie Watts official site]
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