A PLACE FOR JAZZ -Ernie Watts Quartet, October 30, 7 PM at SUNY Schenectady County Community College
Oct 30, 2026: Ernie Watts Quartet
Two-time GRAMMY-winner Ernie Watts won a Downbeat Scholarship for saxophone to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1966, Buddy Rich’s Big Band was in Boston when their alto player left during the tour and Watts was hired out of school to get the band to New York. Instead, he toured the world with the band, recorded three albums, and ended up in LA, still with Buddy’s band. In LA. Studio sessions, working with the bands of Gerald Wilson, Louie Bellson, and Oliver Nelson, Ernie became “first call” for all the reed instruments, and recorded for films, albums for pop icons, all the Motown artists, and even Thelonius Monk, many TV shows, and 20 years in Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show band, led by Doc Severinsen. His two GRAMMYs were for albums produced by Quincy Jones, and he recorded on over 1500 projects in his 41 years in the studios. Playing jazz nightly inspired Ernie to move from production music in the studios to his true inner direction, live improvisation in jazz. By 2009 he was mostly on the road, working with Kurt Elling, Haden, Lee Ritenour, Don Grusin, Billy Cobham, Diane Schuur, other US and EU groups, and Asian groups in Singapore and Bangkok. He also toured (and still tours) with his own Ernie Watts Quartets in the US and the EU. Ernie continues to have master classes and student concerts at colleges and universities. He also performs as a feature artist with big bands, symphonies, and other groups. His US Quartet features Marc Seales on piano, Bruce Lett on bass, and Bob Leatherbarrow on drums, all gifted players who Watts has known for years. He says of the group, “We now don’t just play music, we become music.”
His expansive, deeply lyrical and blues-drenched approach to modern jazz has made Seattle pianist Marc Seales a favorite sideman of touring luminaries for decades. A leading figure in the Northwest jazz scene, Seales is not only a gifted pianist, but he is also a respected composer and educator. His post-bop style is reminiscent of Bill Evans and early Herbie Hancock. Seales has worked with luminaries such as Benny Carter, Bobby Hutcherson and Art Pepper. With his mentor, the late Don Lanphere, Seales toured the world, performing in England, Japan and at the famed North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. Winner of numerous Earshot Jazz awards honoring Seattle-based musicians (Instrumentalist of the Year, Acoustic Jazz Group and Jazz Hall of Fame), Seales has also influenced much young talent as a Professor of Music at the University of Washington, serving as Chair of the Jazz Studies Program. He has recorded several albums as a leader, including his latest People and Places (2025 on Origin Records) which features Ernie Watts on saxophone throughout.
Bruce Lett’s acoustic bass playing is “distinguished by a resilient tone and buoyant rhythmic attitude,” writes the Los Angeles Times. He has played with Nancy Wilson, Diane Schuur, Billy Cobham, Alphonse Mouzon and Gerry Mulligan among others. Lett was Jack Sheldon’s bassist for 20 years and played for 8 years with the Bill Holman Big Band. His major influences include Ray Brown, Paul Chambers and Jaco Pastorius. He emerged out of the highly rated 1 O’clock Band at North Texas State University before landing in Los Angeles in 1985, where Lett established himself as one of the Southern California jazz scenes most in-demand players. Lett has been a longtime faculty member at California State University at Long Beach, as their jazz bass instructor.
Bob Leatherbarrow has been a top drummer for studio and live performances ever since he moved to Los Angeles from Buffalo in 1978. The drummer has played with a long list of great jazz artists, including the Ernie Watts Quartet (for over 25 years), Peggy Lee, Victor Feldman, Horace Silver, Doc Severinsen, John Klemmer, Rosemary Clooney and Natalie Cole. He has recorded in all genres with artists from Gordon Lightfoot to Bette Midler to Dolly Parton, from Placido Domingo to Henry Mancini to Leonard Cohen and Five for Fighting and can be heard on film and television soundtracks. Leatherbarrow is also a vibraphone player, having recorded with Stanley Clarke, Nelly Furtado and many others. He studied at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3632610-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3632610-2
