Reggie Watkins - From Wheeling WV and a long time Pittsburgh resident the trombonist, pianist and band leader has released four recordings as leader and has appeared on many others. From 1999 to 2006 he served as trombonist and musical director for trumpeter and band leader Maynard Ferguson and later with singer-songwriter Jason Mraz from 2008 to 2013. In 2003 Watkins was chosen as a semi-finalist in the “Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.” Watkins has performed and recorded with many great artists from various genres including  Aretha Franklin, Dave Matthews, Dianne Shuur, Jose Feliciano, Willie Nelson, Arturo Sandoval, Warren Haynes, Trombone Shorty, The Temptations, and The O’Jays. Currently, in addition to leading his own groups that perform Watkins’ original music, he is also a member of the Grammy nominated Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band, The Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, Scott Bradley’s Postmodern Jukebox and a founding member of The Keystone Jazz Collective and Steeltown Horns. 

 

"Reggie Watkins manages to improvise with an originality and creativity avoiding clichés and predictable phrases in an entirely distinctive trombone style." – Hot House Magazine 

“Modern jazz for the open-eared, Watkins' agenda is to push the future of jazz..” – Midwest Record

 

 

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