Kansas City infoZine News - UMKC's Bobby Watson at the White House - USA
John Hitch  |  by www.infozine.com. All rights reserved. 19.12 | 18:33


Kansas City, Mo. - infoZine - The University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance is pleased to announce that Bobby Watson, William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies, performed and dined at the White House with the President and Mrs.

Bush. Grammy-nominated musician Bobby Watson was in Washington, DC in conjunction with the Thelonious Monk Institute's All-Star performance at The White House, which was taped as an "In Performance at The White House" PBS special that will be broadcast in early 2007. Watson's appearance also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Jazz in America, an organization dedicated to making jazz history part of the social studies curricula in American public schools.


photo Jazz is world renowned for its rich cultural heritage rooted in the African-American experience.

It is considered by many to be a truly original American art form. To provide education about jazz for students, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz has developed Jazz in America, an internet-based jazz curriculum for 5th, 8th, and 11th grade social studies, American history, and music classes in the United States. To highlight this educational outreach, Bobby Watson has been in many jazz "informances" throughout the United States, helping to educate students about jazz's significance.


A Grammy-nominated saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator, Bobby Watson trained formally at the University of Miami, FL and then earned his "doctorate" as musical director of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the ultimate "postgraduate school" for ambitious young players. He has worked with such notable jazz artists as Max Roach, Louis Hayes, George Coleman, Sam Rivers and Wynton and Branford Marsalis, as well as vocalists Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, and Carmen Lundy. In association with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, Watson launched the first edition of Horizon, his acoustic quintet.

He is a founding member of the highly acclaimed 29th Street Saxophone Quartet. Watson also wrote original music for the sound track of Robert De Niro's directorial debut A Bronx Tale.

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Keywords: Bobby Watson, White House, Kansas City, Thelonious Monk Institute, Jazz In, United States, In America, Thelonious Monk, Monk Institute, Jazz In America
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