Harry Watters | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | musician, band leader |
| Instruments | trombone |
| Labels | Summit Records |
| Website | Official website |
Harry Watters (born in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.) is a noted jazz trombonist. He has performed across the United States with many jazz artists including Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Shirley Jones, and many others. He has performed as a featured trombone soloist with the United States Army Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Syracuse Symphony, among others. He also appears annually at the Eastern Trombone Workshop.
Watters grew up in Alabama in a family full of musicians. He graduated from the University of North Texas. He has since performed across the US, and teaches the clinic “Power Practicing” to students all around the country. He is married to Holly Watters, a violist and keyboardist who performs with the US Army Strings. The two currently reside in Alexandria, Virginia.
* performed with brother Ken Watters
Alton Glenn Miller was an American big-band trombonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best-known big bands. Miller's recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", "Elmer's Tune", and "Little Brown Jug". In just four years Glenn Miller scored 16 number-one records and 69 top ten hits—more than Elvis Presley and the Beatles did in their careers. While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Miller's aircraft disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel.
Joseph Norman Alessi is an American classical trombonist who is currently Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and a soloist, teacher/clinician and recording artist.
Philip Smith is an American classical trumpet player. He is former Principal Trumpet with the New York Philharmonic and played with the orchestra from 1978 to 2014. Smith, born in the United Kingdom, is from a Salvation Army background. He assumed the co-principal position in the New York Philharmonic in June 1978 and the principal position in 1988. He also is a supporter of brass bands, performing with various groups of distinction.
Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher.
Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Christopher Brubeck is an American musician and composer, both in jazz and classical music. As a musician, he mainly plays electric bass, bass trombone, and piano. The son of noted jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, in 1972 he joined his father and brothers Darius and Daniel in The New Brubeck Quartet. He later formed The Brubeck Brothers Quartet with his brothers.
Mark Hetzler is an American trombonist and former member of the Empire Brass Quintet. Hetzler has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the Empire Brass Quintet from 1996–2012, he performed in recital and as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Australia, Taiwan, Korea, China, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Austria, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, Bermuda, St. Bartholomew and across the United States. He appeared with the Empire Brass Quintet on live television and radio broadcasts in Asia and the United States. He is on several of the critically acclaimed Empire Brass CDs on the Telarc label, including Firedance, The Glory of Gabrieli, and a recording of Baroque music for Brass and Organ. Hetzler has recorded ten solo albums released on Summit Records; he has also recorded for the Arista Records label.
Ralph C. Sauer is an American trombonist, arranger and teacher. He was Principal Trombonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 32 years.
The Eastern Trombone Workshop (ETW) has become one of the largest annual events for trombone in the world. The workshop's mission is to give students, performers, and educators an opportunity to meet and share ideas, talents, and opinions about the world of trombone. ETW regularly hosts participants throughout the nation and abroad. The workshop is held at Brucker Hall—The U.S. Army Band's state-of-the-art performance center—located on historic Fort Myer, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
David C. Sampson is an American contemporary classical composer.
The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars is a working jazz ensemble, featuring some of the finest jazz musicians Alabama has to offer. This group is the faculty of the Jazz Education Department of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and the faculty of the Fun With Jazz Educational Program, begun through the Alys Stephens Center (2006), and now administered by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (2007). Through these educational programs, the AJHoF Allstars, directed by Ray Reach, seek to fulfill a mission "...to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and distinctive art form indigenous to America. Its mission is also to preserve a continued and sustained program of illuminating the contribution of the State of Alabama through its citizens, environment, demographics and lore, and perpetuating the heritage of jazz music".
The Magic City Jazz Orchestra (MCJO) is an American jazz ensemble which was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the SuperJazz Big Band by Birmingham, Alabama jazz pianist and vocalist Ray Reach. The mission of the group is to "...perform and record big band jazz music written by well known but under-recorded jazz artists."
Steve Sample Sr. is a bandleader, arranger, composer and jazz educator now residing in Bellingham, Washington. For more than 30 years, Sample was a professor in the Music Department of the University of Alabama, where he directed the Jazz Ensembles and taught music theory, arranging and jazz related courses. Sample trained many notable jazz musicians during his long tenure at Alabama, including Gary Wheat, Birch Johnson, Kelley O'Neal, Chris Gordon, Mervyn Warren, Cedric Dent, Beth Gottlieb, Mart Avant, Dick Aven and Ray Reach. He is respected by his peers as one of the finest jazz educators in the United States. On September 26, 2008, Sample was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame for his contributions to jazz education.
Ken Watters is an American jazz trumpeter residing in Huntsville, Alabama. He is the brother of noted jazz trombonist, Harry Watters. Ken is a member of several noted performing groups, including Tabou Combo,, Natalie Cole Band,, the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, Ray Reach and Friends and the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars. He attended the University of North Texas, where he participated in the famed Lab Band program and studied trumpet with internationally renowned teacher Leonard Candelaria. Later, Ken pursued further trumpet studies in New York City with Lew Soloff and Wynton Marsalis.
Neal Starkey is an American jazz bassist residing in Atlanta, Georgia. He has had a long and varied career, performing with many of the most notable names in jazz, including Kenny Barron, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Duke Pearson, Al Cohn, Charlie Rouse, Barney Kessel and many others. He is a regular featured performer at the W. C. Handy Music Festival, and a member of the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars. Originally from New York, he has made Atlanta his home for the past 25 years.
Donald (Don) Lucas is a trombone artist and educator. He is an associate professor and Brass, Woodwind & Percussion department chair at the Boston University School of Music and served as president of the International Trombone Association.
Summit Records, Inc. is an internationally distributed record label that evolved out of the large brass ensemble Summit Brass in the late 1980s. It was established by David Hickman and Ralph Sauer.
Trombonist Peter Ellefson is Professor of Music at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, having been a faculty member since 2002.
Alan Baylock is an American composer, arranger, educator, bandleader, clinician, instrumentalist, and the former leader of the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra. He was also the Jazz Composer-in-Residence at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia from 2012 until 2016 and served as the Chief Arranger for The Airmen of Note jazz ensemble in Washington, D.C. for 20 years before moving to his current position as the Director of the One O'Clock Lab Band at the University of North Texas.
Everett Millard "Ev" Gilmore, Jr. was an American tubist best known for his association with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, in which he served as principal tubist from 1965 until his retirement in 1995. He was also closely associated with the University of North Texas College of Music and Southern Methodist University.
