Julius Watkins and Willie Ruff: Black Horn Players and Pioneers in Jazz

Lecture at the Southeast Horn Workshop, James Madison University, March 2017

Julius Watkins and Willie Ruff were/are two of the most under-appreciated musicians in their respective times. Both were/are phenomenal musicians who performed in the genres allowed to them based on their race. This lecture focuses on Julius Watkins, but briefly addresses Willie Ruff's significant contribution to the jazz horn world, and his influence on several generations of horn players. Jazz was the primary path available to African American musicians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s and bebop was the right style of jazz for someone looking for solo opportunities. The fact that bebop’s speed and dense texture present a special challenge for the horn with its soft timbre, rotary valves, and close partials, only underscores Watkins’ great skill. In comparing his “Friday the 13th” solo to Dennis Brain’s Mozart K. 495 cadenza it is easy to see that Watkins was a horn player on par with the world’s most talented hornists of his age.

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