The pathway that Julius Watkins, Willie Ruff and John Graas laid, opened space for more people to explore this field and expand the repertoire and possibilities of the horn. The next name that comes to mind is Vince Chancey, who played horn for Sun Ra. He has some work out there and its possible to find solo records by him.
Following the movement, Mark Taylor is another name that comes up. He also has Some solo work available and today he works as a composer/arranger.
In Europe, the horn players by the names of Giovanni Hoffer and Pau Molto have developed the French Horn Jazz Project, which teaches horn students how to play jazz. In 2021 they released a record celebrating the 100 years of birth of Julius Watkins. The album, named Julius Rides Again features two jazz horns. Its a great record, but its only available in CD and on Streaming platform, not on YouTube.
We cannot keep talking about the horn in jazz without talking about some relevant groups that featured the horn back in the day. starting with the Claude Thornhill band. You might be familiar with this name from my first post where I talk about John Graas. Claude Thornhil was a pianist, composer and arranger, who had a jazz band that featured two horns in their standard formation.
Their influence extended in many directions. Willie Ruff recorded a tune by Thornhill named Snowfall in his Smooth Side album, in an arrangement for a horn choir that is very deep, lush and soft.
A man by the name Gil Evans was playing piano and writing arrangements for the Thornhill band. Their sound was something special, and it was a color that inspired Miles Davis's Birth Of The Cool. When working together with Evans, they envisioned a smooth, soothing and lush sound but with a compact formation. They arrived in the nonet formation that featured trumpet,
Davis (trumpet), Mike Zwerin (trombone), Bill Barber (tuba), Junior
Collins (French horn), Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone), Lee Konitz
(alto saxophone), John Lewis (piano), Al McKibbon (bass), and Max Roach
(drums).
Still in the Willie Ruff and Miles Davis and Gil Evans and all of this chamber and orchestral jazz talk, we have to talk about Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches Of Spain. In Miles Ahead, Willie Ruff was participating as a side man with Jim Buffington and Tony Miranda. In Porgy and Bess, Willie Was playing next to Julius Watkins. In Sketches Of Spain there was a larger horn section for a larger ensemble, with Tony Miranda, Jim Buffington, Joe Singer, John Barrows and Earl Chapin on the French horns. All of these works were a collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans, taking some ideas of the Thornhill band and taking it to another step. There are no improvised solos in any of these albums by Miles nor by Thornhill, but it is possible to notice the textural blueprint.
Another great name in jazz horn playing is Willie Ruff. He was born in Sheffield, Alabama in September 1, 1931. He played horn and bass and became famous for his life long collaboration with Dwike Mitchell in the Mithcell-Ruff Duo. Working together for over 50 years, they carved some history with some of the greatest musicians of all time, such as Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Sonny Stitt, Benny Golson, Quincy Jones, Gil Evans and Miles Davis. He was also a professor at Yale between 1971 - 2017, teaching music history, ethnomusicology and arranging.
This album, "The Smooth Side Of Willie Ruff" is one of his two solo works, and features a more easy listening blues record. It has been a while I don listen to this work and I forgot how hip this is! Ruff's sound is very smooth as the title of the record suggests, and he delivers a bluesy language that flirts with bebop at times.
Ruff was an spiritual person and recorded an album named "Gregorian Chant, Plain Chant and Spirituals (Live)". This album recorded entirely on the solo horn, has a depth of emotion that is characteristic to Willie.
Most of his discography is with the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. One of my favorite recordings is the one in which they perform the "Suite For The Duo" by Billy Strayhorn, and this piece was written by him not long after a surgery he had and shortly before his death. After a Mitchell-Ruff performance, Strayhorn came to talk to Willie about specifics of the horn and how to write for it, leaving Ruff in disbelief that the composer of "Take The A Train" would compose something for them. After weeks working with Stray, Duke Ellington and Mitchell, they put together the Suite For The Duo, a piece that translates the feelings Billy had prior to his passing.
There is not much out there about Julius Watkins. Dr. Steve Schaughency has written a series of 4 articles published on The Horn Call, and does an annotated bibliography of the whole discography in which Watkins is playing, both as a leader or as a sideman. This source allows us to locate which recordings and which track Julius plays on, as well as if he has an improvised solo or not.
There is one biographical work on Julius by Dr. Patrick Smith called "Chronicle of a Phantom". This work has compiled the discography of Julius "The Phantom" Watkins and his biography. Even with this book, it is possible to notice how much Dr. Smith went out of his way to find documents and things about Julius. Chronicle of a Phantom is an excellent source for those who want to know more about the personal life of Julius Watkins as well as his musical background.
It is also possible to find recordings under his name and his participation with other artists such as Jimmy Heath, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and many others.
In 1959, Julius Watkins joined the Quincy Jones Orchestra. This touring band featured some major names of jazz history such as Clark Terry, Freddie Hubbard, Melba Liston and others. During that time, Watkins had some of the most iconic performances in that group and some of these performances were recorded in video. The albums this band released under Mercury label such as "Free and Easy" and "Birth of a Band" are available in vinyl and on streaming platforms. There is also a compilation of the whole discography of this band under the title "The ABC, Mercury Jazz Big Band Session", it contains 4 discs with studio and live performances, totaling around 5h40m of big band music.
In 1961, after the Quincy Jones Orchestra ended, Watkins got together with Jimmy Heath whom he had met in the band. their collaboration rendered a great hard bop record named The Quota. Featuring the Heath brothers, Cedar Walton, Freddy Hubbard and Julius Watkins, this record is one of the greatest and most underrated albums of all time.
Also in 1961 he got together with John Coltrane in the Africa/Brass sessions as a sideman. This record was a little more conservative when it comes to style, but innovates in the arrangements. Featuring long solos over one chord vamp sessions and unusual textures, this album features traditional songs and Coltrane's compositions.
I invite you to come and join me for a trip around the brass music I like to listen too. I will include classical and jazz repertoire, in an attempt to make this session more eclectic.
This is a recording of the horn octet "Farewell to the Red Castle" by Kerry Turner, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Horns. I like this recording because of the sound quality of the Vienna horns, having a very pure and vocal characteristic.
This next one is a recording of "Maria de Buenos Aires" by Astor Piazzolla, performed by the brass of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Here they have a great rendition of this piece arranged for two trumpets, two horns, two trombone, a tuba and two percussions.
This is a recording of "Choros 4" by Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was performed by the brass of the São Paulo Symhpony (including a former teacher of mine, Mr. Luiz Garcia). This piece was written for three horns and one trombone and is in one movement. Choro is a traditional Brazilian musical style that has developed mostly in the late 1800 across mid 20th century. It has also partially contributed to the development of samba.
This video is of "Turmalina" by Gilson Santos, berformed by the São Paulo Brass Trio. This group was born at OSUSP, one of the big orchestras in Brazil, and is composed by Vitor Ferreira on horn (also a former teacher of mine), Amarildo Nascimento on Trumpet and Carlos Freitas on trombone. The piece they are performing was written for them.
This is a recording of "Mood in Motion" by Julius Watkins. This is part of a record Julius Watkins produced with percussionist Mat Matthews. Featuring David Amram, Fred Klein and Tony Miranda, Watkins made the first (and possibly only) jazz horn quartet album, featuring his compositions arranged for four horns, bass, drums, guitar and accordion.
This is the Horn Big Band performing an arrangement prepared by Dr. Steve Schaughency of the tune "A Little Minor Booze", by Willie Maidens. The piece features 12 horns and a rhythm section and an improvised solo section. The horn group is composed by Geof Winter, Kerry Turner, Kristina Mascher-Turner, Jeff Snedeker, Steve Schaughency, Kate Pritchett, Andrew Young, Josh Williams, Josiah Bullach, Linus Bernoulli, Alex Shuhan, Denise Tryon and Arkady Shilkloper.
In the mid to late 1940s, a young horn player by the name of Julius Watkins (1921 - 1977) came to the scene in New York and started to make success. Born in Detroit, he attended to Cass Tech High School together with some high caliber names in the world of jazz such as Donald Byrd, Ron Carter, Paul Chambers and Dorothy Ashby. His talent with the horn was noticed since very early, and it was at Cass Tech that he received training from Francis Hellstein of the Detroit Symphony.
He performed with the Ernie Fields Band and joined the Naval Reserve in 1944. In 1946, he moved to New York and started his studies at the Manhattan School of Music, which gave him training as a composer and arranger. His improvisational identity draw inspiration from classical chamber music, and soon his sound became highly appraised by major names in the field.
In the early 1950s, Watkins had the opportunity to record with Thelonious Monk on Friday the 13th, putting him into the jazz mainstream. It was in that group that he met Charlie Rouse who played tenor saxophone for Monk. together they founded Les Jazz Modes, a combo that was very distinct in its sound. The blending between the tenor and the horn is remarkable, and as Dr Patrick Smith brings in his book "Chronicle of a Phantom", they would practice very quietly until "wee hours" of the morning. That intimate practice reflected on their sound.
In 1954, Julius gathered a few musicians such as Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, Frank Foster and Oscar Pettiford (who was also in Les Jazz Modes alongside Paul Chambers) and made the Julius Watkins Sextet. Here Watkins shows a more developed musicianship, with a more sophisticated language and carrying a few concepts from the previous record into this one, such as the chamber characteristics. This post will be continued in a next one, since is already a lengthy listening session.
Since I have moved to the United States in 2022 I have been studying jazz on the French Horn, and it has been surprising how many people have never seen this instrument in that setup. Many people find themselves surprised, stating that they never heard French horn in jazz before and that they are excited to know how it sounds.
However, some instruments of its family such as the alto horn and the coralto have been there since the beginning of jazz, in the bands of Lieut. James Reese Europe. The French horn had its participation in bebop as well. The movement that started in the 1940s with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, had the presence of the horn in the Claude Thornhill band, but the parts were previously arranged, meaning that the horns did not improvise.
One of the earliest names of jazz horn is John Graas, from Dubuque, Iowa. With early interest in jazz, he joined the Claude Thornhill band in 1942, and had also performed in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as well as the Cleveland Orchestra. He was also a composer and arranger and produced records with the horn in jazz such as "Coup de Graas". His career as a classical musician was very productive until his early death in 1962.
