Jeff "Tain" Watts
Drums
66 age
January 20, 1960 Birthday
Easton, Pennsylvania, U.S. Birthplace
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About
Jeff "Tain" Watts is a Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator. He holds the singular distinction of appearing on every Grammy-winning jazz recording by both Wynton and Branford Marsalis, earning seven Grammy Awards across his career. A classically trained timpanist who discovered jazz at Berklee College of Music, Watts joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and later became a cornerstone of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, including three years on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has collaborated with Betty Carter, Michael Brecker, McCoy Tyner, George Benson, and the Mingus Big Band, and appeared as Rhythm Jones in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. A recipient of the 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, he has released multiple albums as a leader on Columbia Records and his own Dark Key Music label. He currently serves as director of the jazz ensemble at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Trivia
Watts received his nickname "Tain" from pianist Kenny Kirkland, who spotted a Chieftain gas station during a tour stop in Florida and declared, "Chief Tain? You're going to be Jeff Tain." He possesses perfect pitch, a trait he did not realize was unusual until adulthood. He was voted Drummer of the Year by Modern Drummer Magazine in both 1988 and 1993. His 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship funded "Sweet Pittsburgh," a suite inspired by the plays of August Wilson, who grew up in the same Hill District neighborhood where Watts was raised.
Early Life
Jeff Watts was born on January 20, 1960, in Easton, Pennsylvania, and raised in Pittsburgh's Hill District, one of three brothers in a working-class family with no professional musical background. He began playing drums in the fourth grade and initially pursued classical percussion, majoring in timpani at Duquesne University under teachers including Michael Kumer and Stan Leonard, principal timpanist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. At Duquesne, he discovered he had perfect pitch. After two years, he transferred to Berklee College of Music in 1979, where he met Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, and Greg Osby, and made the pivotal switch from classical percussion to jazz drums. In 1981, he moved to New York City to join the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, launching a career that would earn him seven Grammy Awards.
Jeff "Tain" Watts Solos
1989
Drums solo - Stompin' At The Savoy - 1989
4/4 swing in C major at 267 BPM