Saxophonist and educator to play two shows Thursday

By Tiffany Thompson

Bobby Watson’s artistic process could be described as kaleidoscopic. While notes, intervals and progressions figure heavily into his composition, the accomplished jazz musician also takes into consideration the colors and patterns that inspire him to create the feeling inside the music.

Bobby Watson at Dazzle
Bobby Watson will perform at Dazzle Jazz with Harold Summey, Seth Lewis and Peter Stoltzman at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26.

“There's some days where I have some kind of pattern, some kind of device, some kind of tone, some kind of color. I will work on that one color for a while,” Watson says about practicing his instrument.

One of the things that makes him so successful as a musician and an instructor is his ability to maintain his thoughts on the music even after he puts his instrument down.

“I do a lot of practice just laying in bed, just with my fingers dealing with intervals and just trying to understand the language of music,” he said.

The language of music has been in Watson’s blood for a long time. Born in Lawrence, Kansas, he got his start playing for his grandfather’s church, first on clarinet, then piano. Both his mother and his aunt played piano in the church as well, in addition to his father being a saxophonist.

Watson notes that while his father’s main job was in aviation, he had a deep connection with the instrument, saying that his father would come home from work and play at night, something that served as a form of meditation for him.

This connection with the saxophone that Watson saw in his father is something that he feels in himself as well. Though he uses the piano to compose pieces and instruct his students, his feelings on his main instrument serve as a guide both creatively and spiritually.

“It gives me a clue inside my spirit, what I'm feeling, and it's also healing,” Watson says. “I’ve always said that my saxophone and my music express things I couldn't put into words. It’s very cathartic.”

Watson’s connection between the saxophone and his inner expression has served him well. After leaving Kansas, he continued his musical education at the University of Miami. From there, he began a decades-long music career that included playing for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, contributing his brass prowess as a session musician to notable jazz greats like Max Roach and George Coleman (among many others), and creating his own music with Bobby Watson & Horizon. He also released a number of albums under his own name.

Watson credits his growth as a musician to working as a band leader as well as a session musician. Working in a variety of settings and situations can push a musician to become more versatile and adaptive, and while there is a great amount of freedom to be found working on his own music, Watson finds that the knowledge gained working on other people's music offers artistic freedom as well. “Playing other people's music made me see how when you have that freedom, you sort of have a more free input. And when you play your own music you start to look at what you've written for yourself and sometimes you box yourself in by your own composition,” Watson explains. “So I’m always sort of taking in all the experiences I've had and trying to give that freedom to my music as well.”

The knowledge that Watson gained over the course of his storied career is not something he keeps to himself. One of his many accomplishments includes his career as an educator, serving as an adjunct professor at William Patterson University and the Manhattan School of Music before returning to the midwest to the University of Missouri-Kansas City as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies.

But currently, Watson is returning to Denver June 26 for two shows at Dazzle. He has played here professionally many times, but adds that he enjoys coming to Colorado with his wife for vacations as well.

Like many musicians before him, there are challenges to adjusting to performing in Colorado, but nothing that he can’t handle with some additional tools. “The thing I always have to get used to is the altitude,” Watson laughs. “So I have to change reeds. Sometimes I have to use a softer reed, but it’s beautiful there.”