Reg Watkin's Page

	Reg Watkin's Page

	*It was a week of press coverage for the Watkins' kids. Here's are copies of this week's stories about my little brother, Trombonist-Composer-Arranger, Reg Watkins.*
	Reg is Musical Director for the Maynard Ferguson Big Band

	Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Trombonist has big plans for A-List ensemble By Bob Karlovits TRIBUNE-REVIEW MUSIC WRITER Wednesday, September 1, 2004

	Trombonist Reggie Watkins has learned lessons about music and life in the business in his five years with always-on-the-road trumpet star Maynard Ferguson. His arrangements are obviously shaped by the high energy that is always part of a Ferguson ensemble. And life with the Big Bop Nouveau band has taught him he is "cut out to live the life of a musician," as he puts it. "It's just like any other job," he says about a lifestyle that is focused on the road. "When you're a lawyer, you know you get up at 7 and put on a suit. When you're in a band, you get up later -- and stay up later." He will be using that work philosophy this weekend as he leads his own band, the A-List Octet, in two gigs that are CD release parties for his album "A-List." Of course, Watkins, 33, still is with the Ferguson band, where he is trombonist, music director and arranger. But he has put together his own band that he hopes to make a steady ensemble "even regionally -- that would be cool." "We call this the A-List Octet, but I think this weekend, we'll have about 10 around," he says about the band that features a lot of stalwarts of the current Pittsburgh jazz scene. Besides Watkins, who now lives in the city's Allentown section, the band also has such members as drummer Dave Throckmorton, a veteran of the Ferguson band, saxophonists Eric Defade, bassist Nathan Peck, pianist Howard Alexander and trumpeter Ian Gordon. He says the band is not shaped by a concept, but rather by the strengths of its members, "I want to present this band -- and this album -- as a jazz product," Watkins says. "But there are elements of rock and funk in it, too." In that way, it has a lot of the same approach of the Ferguson band, which is rooted in the 76-year-old trumpeter's jazz history but also borrows rhythms from rock and hip-hop. Watkins is a Wheeling, W.Va., native who studied music at West Virginia University. He was a semi-finalist in 2002 in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, has toured with the Temptations, led his own quintet in New Zealand, and has performed on Princess cruises. He also is the brother of Olga Watkins, the Coraopolis singer-chef who blends food with music to make parties out of catered get-togethers. The trombonist is part of a long line of area musicians who have spent time with Ferguson's band. They include drummer Throckmorton, bassists Paul Thompson and Brian Stahurski and trombonist Randy Purcell, who was a star in the group in the '70s. Bob Karlovits can be reached at bkarlovits@tribweb.com or (412) 320 7852.

	Pittsburgh City Paper, September 1, 2004 Reggie Watkins A-List JiveFam Productions Writer: JUSTIN HOPPER
	Reggie Watkins’ CD-release show is 7:30 p.m. Fri., Sept. 3, at Dowe’s on Ninth, Downtown. 412-281-9225 Internationally acclaimed jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson’s targeted poaching of talent from the Pittsburgh area has had a profound impact on the young jazz scene around town. Much the way that earlier big-name players and high-profile local clubs circulated musical blood in and out of Pittsburgh, Ferguson has taken musicians such as drummer Dave Throckmorton and bassist Paul Thompson (of Beam and Thoth Trio, amongst others) and bassist Nathan Peck (of Pittsburgh’s Peck jazz family), and given them immeasurable experience, which the musicians have faithfully brought back to the ’Burgh. The latest result of the Ferguson-Pittsburgh connection is A-List, the debut solo album by trombonist/composer/arranger Reggie Watkins. And while A-List speaks volumes about Watkins’ own accomplishments as a musician and composer, it simultaneously acts as a rallying point for a young, vibrant set of jazz musicians around the city -- the top names and top players of a new generation who make up the first-choice list of the title. First and foremost, of course, is Watkins himself, a remarkably pure trombonist whose strong tones range from laid-back harmonies (“December Twentieth”) to bop sectionals (“Weight for Six”) to funky, fusion-inspired soloing (“Three Girls on Two Chairs”), reggae rhythms (“Molero”), and Fred Wesley-ish percussive kinetic action. Watkins’ trademark throughout A-List, though, is confidence: He plays with the cool ease and subtle machismo of a veteran, both of the tour spotlight of Ferguson’s band and of the smoky eclecticism of the Quiet Storm Coffeehouse sessions by the Jive Family, from which some of A-List’s musical chairs are drawn. Similarly, Watkins’ own compositions, such as the subdued “Two Colors” and the slingshot “Weight For Six,” stand up as full-fledged jazz-standard contenders without reeking of puffed-chest, gunslinger’s bravado. But A-List is really about collaboration, and if it comes across as a showoff in any way, it’s in the size of that roster -- too many cooks (16 musicians contribute to the disc) come close to troubling Watkins’ master plan. What saves it from falling apart under the weight of its own musical diversity, besides Watkins’ own determination as a bandleader, is the quality of most players on that list. Throckmorton and Peck; keyboardist Howie Alexander; veteran trumpeter Ian Gordon plus Ken Robinson, Patrick Hession and Jamie Moore; guitarist Craig “Izzy” Arlet -- all contribute bop, big-band, and smooth jazz experience tempered with the experimentalism of vast musical backgrounds. So a track like “Star Jive,” with a rhythm based on drum-and-bass, hard-and-fast syncopations, works alongside Thelonious Monk’s swooning “Ask Me Now.” Pittsburgh-to-Chicago transplant Gene Stovall contributes vocals to three tracks, including one of his own compositions, the funk-jazz jam “Sittin’ Here in My Room,” complete with Stovall’s signature borderline psychosis lyrics and turntable-scratch scat. As with his first solo disc, A-List marks an important moment for Reggie Watkins. But as a showcase for Pittsburgh’s family of young musicians working in the ever more loosely defined field of “jazz,” this album could hopefully someday be seen as a point when these musicians were still mostly lesser-knowns. If so, A-List will likely stand as a worthy marker.

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