Saturday March 7, 2026

Bobby Watson Quartet

Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (Map) 8:00 pm

Tickets

For more than three decades, Bobby Watson has contributed consistently intelligent, sensitive and well-thought out music to the modern-day jazz lexicon. All told, Watson, the immensely talented and now-seasoned veteran, has issued some 30 recordings as a leader and appeared on 100-plus other recordings, performing as either co-leader or in support of other like-minded musicians. Not simply a performer, the saxophonist has recorded more than 100 original compositions including the music for the soundtrack of A Bronx Tale, which marked Robert DeNiro’s 1993 directorial debut. Numerous Watson compositions have become classics such as his “Time Will Tell,” “In Case You Missed It” and “Wheel within a Wheel,” each now oft-recorded titles that are interpreted by his fellow musicians both on the bandstand and on other recordings.

Reviews for Bobby Watson’s latest album “Keepin’ it Real:”

“His playing is sophisticated yet soulful. He’s elegantly slippery as only a player at one with his instrument can be, stretching phrases seamlessly over nearly the entire length of a chorus and interjecting brief figures with just the right squeal to make his point.”
— Howard Mandel, Downbeat

“We don’t have baseball right now, but Bobby Watson and New Horizon hits it out of the ball park on this fantastic release.”
— Jeff Krow, Audiophile Audition

“Alto saxophonist/composer Bobby Watson debuts a new incarnation of his renowned band Horizon on KEEPIN’ IT REAL, furthering a legacy endowed by Watson’s days as one of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and passed on through a lifetime in jazz education.”
— Jim Hynes, Glide Magazine

“These guys make it sound so easy, but if it were, why isn’t there more music like this?”
— George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly

Musicians:
Bobby Watson – saxophone
Curtis Lundy-bass
Victor Jones-drums
Jordan Williams-piano