Watts, Jeff “Tain”
Watts, Jeff “Tain”
Watts, Jeff “Tain” jazz percussionist; b. Pittsburgh, Jan. 20,1960. He began playing the drums at ten and from 14 studied percussion in high school. He was the youngest timpanist in the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony; entered Duquesne Univ., worked with Michael Kumer, and at 17 joined the funk group Flavor. He then studied with Joe Hunt at Berklee, where he played funk and fusion with Branford Marsalis, Wallace Roney, Kevin Eubanks, Victor Bailey, Donald Harrison, Greg Osby, and others. He was the rhythm anchor for Wynton Marsalis’s group from its beginnings in 1982 until the celebrated departure of Watts, Kenny Kirkland, and Branford Marsalis to tour with British pop star Sting in 1988. He has also worked with Ron Carter, Slide Hampton, David Murray, and recorded with Ellis Marsalis (1990), Sonny Rollins, and McCoy Tyner. He played and acted in Mo Better Blues, directed by Spike Lee (1988). In 1992, he played in the Tonight Show orchestra alongside Branford and Kirkland, but left the orchestra when Marsalis gave up its leadership. He has since worked actively as a session drummer.
Discography
WYNTON MARSALISThink of One (1983). WATTS: Megawatts (1991); Citizen Tain (1999).
—Lewis Porter