In Touch with Bobby Watson by Connie "Crush" Humiston

Many of us are aware that Grammy nominated Bobby
Watson grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, held the post of
musical director of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, has 26 recordings as a
bandleader, appears on nearly 100 other recordings, , has more than 100 original
compositions, and moved back to Kansas City in 2002 to assume the directorship of jazz studies at
the University of Missouri Kansas City, Conservatory of Music.
But how many know how the mentorship of Art
Blakey has influenced his professorships? Who is the
man behind the music and what are his rewards?
“Art Blakey said you should always try to play
like there’s no tomorrow because tomorrow might not
come,” Bobby relates. “I always play so I can give myself
an ‘A’ for effort when walking off the bandstand.”
One of his biggest rewards is when his improvisational
students experience their epiphanies: “You give
them what you’ve learned to help them and they’re not
going to get it in one to two semesters, so that part can
be frustrating. But it also affects how I grade them (on
effort and sincerity). A year or two later they come back
and say, ‘Even though I understood it at the time, now
it really has sunk in.’ That’s how the art form is – a lot
of trial and error.”
Similar to Bobby’s New York experience, his
students get to experience real-life trial and error and
mentorship. “KC’s a hub of jazz,” Bobby explains. “My
students are fixtures at the Friday and Saturday night
Mutual Musicians Foundation jams, where many lead
the sessions, and Ray Reed keeps tabs on them and
gives me reports – so a lot of people in the community,
including Gerald Dunn in letting them lead jam sessions
on Mondays at Blue Room, are helping me to raise
them. Everette DeVan, Kerry Strayer, the Kansas City
Jazz Orchestra, Alaadeen hire my students. Several are
members of my 18th and Vine Big Band. Clint Ashlock
[trumpet] leads a band at Harling’s every Tuesday; 99
percent of that band is UMKC. And I perform with
them every Thursday at the Mike’s Tavern jam session.
My students are part of the jazz scene in KC, and that
attracts other students to come here.”
Of course it doesn’t hurt in recruitment that
Bobby’s very presence at UMKC puts Kansas City on
the map and that he brings to campus his international
colleagues for his students to be able to ask questions
and hang out with – such as Curtis Fuller, Slide Hampton,
Jon Faddis, Mulgrew Miller, Paquito D’Rivera and
Stephon Harris.

Mentorship on an international scale

Bobby is bringing his mentorship to national
youth and sees the future of jazz as bright. For the past
12 years, he has worked with the Thelonious Monk
Institute of Jazz. As the artistic director for the Jazz in
America high school outreach program, his goal is to
reach all 50 states. “My New York rhythm section, along
with vocalist Lisa Henry, spends a week in a city and we
generally hit two schools per day, giving Informances
– one hour for the whole student body, then we go to
the band room and work with their jazz band. We’ve
been as far north as Alaska, as far south as Florida.”
It’s a highly-talented peer-to-peer program where
15- to 18-year-old students join their mentors and embody
that role themselves. “We take the jazz combo on
the road for these Informances and they work with the
local high school kids. They’re very mature and they
play on a very high level. That’s why I know the future
is bright. The students look at me and say, ‘He should
play that good – look how old he is!’ While their peers
really get them inspired – ‘how did you get so good?’
They hear the answers I’ve taught: listen to a lot of
jazz records, transcribe solos, a lot of practicing, a lot
of listening, a lot of hard work.

The rewards of hard
work and practicing

“Static” is not in Bobby’s vocabulary. During his
sabbatical this past spring, he completed “Gates BBQ
Suite” a musical journey of the Gates experience, with
familiar titles: “May I Help You?”; “Beef on Bun”;
Heavy on the Sauce …” The world premiere, complete
with Ollie Gates and family, debuted December 1st at
UMKC’s Performing Arts Center. “I’ve been working
on it for four years,” Bobby notes, “but during my sabbatical,
I was able to work on it almost daily all day long
and into the night. It was good for me. I hadn’t done
that in years. When teaching, you’re always absorbing
your students’ needs. I was able to turn inward and
address my needs as an artist during my sabbatical.”
Bobby also traveled a lot in the spring but found
it’s not as rewarding as it once was. “UMKC keeps me
grounded,” he admits. “If left to my own devices, I’ll work myself in the
ground, run myself ragged.”
Although Bobby is a member of eight bands and does tour extensively
(his endowed job description requires that he maintain his international
artist status), he has reasons to stay home. After living in New York for most
of their 32 years together, he and his wife Pam are thrilled to be first-time
homeowners in Shawnee, and much of Bobby’s success is due to Pam, a
recognized composer, vocalist, teacher and piano accompanist in her own
right – and also from Kansas City, Kansas. Her compositions have been
recorded by Art Blakey, Roy Hargrove, Betty Carter, Kevin Mahogany,
Terell Stafford and, naturally, her husband. Currently an accompanist for
St. Matthew AME Zion Church, Pam also sings with Joe Cartwright, Greg
Richter and Gerald Dunn’s ensemble. And music runs in the family – her
sister Karita Carter is a well-known trombonist in Kansas City.
Besides sharing their joint passion for music, Bobby and Pam share a
deep love for one another. “Pam is the best mother and such a beautiful wife,”
Bobby says. “Being married to a musician is not easy, plus she’s an important
artist in her own right. That’s a lot to do. I missed many of my kids’ first
moments, their first steps. She was there to make sure the kids understood
and if it was all right with her, it was all right for them. Aaron and Lafiya
learned artistic sacrifice as well and have continued in non-mainstream
careers. Pam was the hand that rocked the cradle.”