by Staff

Tenor saxaphonist Ernie Watts calls his way of life "hectic but fulfilling" -- a concise way of describing a career that ranges from commercial projects such as the film score to Ghostbusters, to recording a blues-based album with some of today's top jazz performers.

Watts' commercial music work included being the regular tenor saxaphonist on The Tonight Show for 20 years and a member of the NBC staff orchestra for its last three years (1969-1972), being used as a sideman for various pop and rock artists on the show, and playing on numerous film and television scores, including The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Color Purple, and Fame. He has also crossed over into pop many times, playing with such groups as The Rolling Stones, Whitney Houston, and Frank Zappa, and in the 1980s his "Chariots of Fire" won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental. He received another Grammy in 1985 for his album Musician.

But Watts' love affair with music began with jazz (specifically, with hearing John Coltrane's Kind of Blue when Watts was a teenager), and to jazz he always seems to return. His latest release, The Long Road Home, is a "blues-ish and relaxed affair that leaves plenty of room for passionate solos" and has no drums, which enables the listener to hear all of the music clearly. For the project, Watts recruited Kenny Baron, who has played with Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, to play piano; Reggie Workman, who has recorded with John Coltrane and Art Blakey, for bass; and guitarist Mark Whitfield. Singer Carmen Lundy, with whom Watts has recorded on one of her projects, also appears on two of The Long Road Home's songs. Despite the musicians all being well known for playing jazz, the album actually emphasizes the blues, or, as Watts says, "songs that put me in a blues mood." People described the music as "phrasing as natural as falling water and a sound that is at once steeped in tradition and wholly unique."

Since moving to Colorado in 1987, Watts has taken less pop and studio work, releasing four jazz/blues albums as a band leader on JVC as well as albums with Brazilian superstar Gilberto Gil and Gamalon. He also plays and records regularly with Charlie Haden's award-winning quartet West and on occasion sits in with Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. He is a member of The Meeting, a quartet with keyboardist Patrice Rushen and percussionist Ndugu Chancler, and still plays with long-time associate Lee Ritenour. Watts believes it's crucial that music get passed on to younger players, and he travels often, both for concerts and workshops.

Watts will perform in Austin on February 13, backed by local musicians Jeff Helmer (piano), John Fremgen (bass), and Brannen Temple (drums). Tickets are $7 and the show starts at 9:30 p.m. He will also participate in a show with the Texas Tech University Jazz Ensemble, part of Texas Tech's Artist in Residency Program, on Wednesday, February 11. The show begins at 9 p.m. and is free to the public. Both shows are at the Elephant Room, 315 Congress.