Ernie Watts

Saxophonist Ernie Watts built a career as a bandleader and sideman with one foot in many musical camps, but jazz remains his most abiding love. “When you study jazz and you learn how to improvise and you learn the harmonic structures and you learn the chords and the scales, all of that knowledge crosses over into pop and rock and blues,” he says.

Over his 50-plus-year career, the 74-year-old two-time Grammy winner has done more than a little crossing over. He’s recorded and/or toured with a galaxy of jazz, pop, rock, and R&B superstars, including the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Cannonball Adderley, the Jacksons, the Commodores, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Steely Dan, Barry White, Frank Zappa, Elton John, Pat Metheny, and James Brown. He played on Band during Johnny Carson’s tenure, and spent 25 years with bassist Charlie Haden’s Quartet West. He played in GRP Records’ All-Star Big Band and has enjoyed a decades-long association with guitarist Lee Ritenour. It’s a résumé of astonishing breadth, and Watts says he owes it all to his thorough grounding in jazz.