Julius Watkins

Julius Watkins (October 10, 1921 – April 4, 1977) was an American jazz musician who played French horn. Described by AllMusic as "virtually the father of the jazz French horn", Watkins won the Down Beat critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for Miscellaneous Instrument.

Life and career
Watkins was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States. He began playing the French horn when he was nine years old. Watkins began his career in jazz playing the trumpet in the Ernie Fields Orchestra from 1943 to 1946. By the late 1940s, he had played some French horn solos on recording sessions led by Kenny Clarke and Babs Gonzales. After moving to New York City, Watkins studied for three years at the Manhattan School of Music. He started appearing in small-group jazz sessions, including two led by Thelonious Monk, featuring on "Friday the 13th" on the album Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (1954).

Watkins recorded with many other jazz musicians, including John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Gil Evans, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Randy Weston, and with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. He co-led, with Charlie Rouse, the group Les Jazz Modes from 1956 to 1959, and he toured with Quincy Jones and his band from 1959 to 1961.

In 1969, Watkins played French horn for the beat poet Allen Ginsberg's album Songs of Innocence and Experience (1970), a musical adaptation of William Blake's poetry collection of the same name.

Suffering from diabetes, liver and kidney problems, and chronic alcoholism, Watkins died from a heart attack in Short Hills, New Jersey, at the age of 55.

From 1994 to 1998, an annual Julius Watkins Jazz Horn Festival was held in New York, beginning at the Knitting Factory, ) honoring his legacy. After an eleven-year break, another Julius Watkins Festival was held on October 3, 2009, in Seattle, Washington, at Cornish College of the Arts. On September 29, 2012, the seventh Julius Watkins Jazz Horn Festival was held at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

As leader/co-leader
With Charlie Rouse as Les Jazz Modes/The Jazz Modes With Jazz Contemporaries (George Coleman, Clifford Jordan, Harold Mabern, Larry Ridley, Keno Duke)
 * Julius Watkins Sextet, Vol 1 & 2 (Blue Note, 1954, 1955)
 * French Horns for My Lady (Phillips, 1962)
 * Jazzville Vol. 1 (Dawn, 1956) - shared LP with Gene Quill-Dick Sherman Quintet
 * Les Jazz Modes (Dawn, 1956)
 * Mood in Scarlet (Dawn, 1956)
 * The Most Happy Fella (Atlantic, 1958)
 * The Jazz Modes (Atlantic, 1959)
 * Reasons in Tonality (Strata-East, 1972)

As sideman
With Manny Albam With Benny Bailey With Art Blakey With Kenny Burrell With Billy Byers With Donald Byrd With John Coltrane With Tadd Dameron With Miles Davis With Billy Eckstein With Gil Evans With Art Farmer With Curtis Fuller and Hampton Hawes With Dizzy Gillespie With Allen Ginsberg With Benny Golson With Johnny Griffin With Gigi Gryce With Jimmy Heath With Freddie Hubbard With Milt Jackson With The Jazz Composer's Orchestra With Quincy Jones With Thad Jones and Mel Lewis With Beverly Kenney With Stan Kenton With Roland Kirk With Michel Legrand With the Manhattan Jazz All-Stars With Herbie Mann With Cal Massey With Mat Mathews With Charles McPherson With Gil Mellé With Charles Mingus With Blue Mitchell With Thelonious Monk With David Newman With Oliver Nelson With Chico O'Farrill With Oscar Peterson With Oscar Pettiford With Johnny Richards With the Riverside Jazz Stars With Pete Rugolo With Pharoah Sanders With George Shearing With Warren Smith With Les Spann With Billy Taylor With Clark Terry With McCoy Tyner With Randy Weston With Art Webb With Mary Lou Williams With Phil Woods
 * Jazz Goes to the Movies (Impulse!, 1962)
 * Big Brass (Candid, 1960)
 * Golden Boy (Colpix, 1964)
 * Guitar Forms (Verve, 1965)
 * Impressions of Duke Ellington (Mercury, 1961)
 * Jazz Lab (Columbia, 1957) - with Gigi Gryce
 * Modern Jazz Perspective (Columbia, 1957) - with Gigi Gryce
 * Africa/Brass (Impulse!, 1961)
 * The Africa/Brass Sessions, Volume 2 (Impulse!, 1961 [1974])
 * The Magic Touch (Riverside, 1962)
 * Porgy and Bess (Columbia, 1959)
 * Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (Columbia, 1961)
 * Quiet Nights (Columbia, 1963)
 * At Basin Street East (EmArcy, 1961) with Quincy Jones
 * New Bottle Old Wine (World Pacific, 1958)
 * The Individualism of Gil Evans (Verve, 1964)
 * Blues in Orbit (Enja, 1971)
 * Brass Shout (United Artists, 1959)
 * Curtis Fuller and Hampton Hawes with French Horns (Status, 1957 [1962])
 * Gillespiana (Verve, 1960)
 * Songs of Innocence and Experience (MGM, 1970)
 * Benny Golson's New York Scene (Contemporary, 1957)
 * Change of Pace (Riverside, 1961)
 * Nica's Tempo (Signal, 1955)
 * The Quota (Riverside, 1961)
 * Triple Threat (Riverside, 1962)
 * Swamp Seed (Riverside, 1963)
 * The Body & the Soul (Impulse!, 1963)
 * Meet Milt Jackson (Savoy, 1949)
 * Roll 'Em Bags (Savoy, 1949)
 * For Someone I Love (Riverside, 1963)
 * The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (JCOA 1968)
 * The Birth of a Band! (Mercury, 1959)
 * The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones (Mercury, 1959)
 * Q Live in Paris Circa 1960 (Quest, 1960 [1996])
 * The Birth of a Band! Vol. 2 (Mercury, 1959-60 [1984])
 * I Dig Dancers (Mercury, 1960)
 * Around the World (Mercury, 1961)
 * Newport '61 (Mercury, 1961)
 * The Great Wide World Of Quincy Jones: Live! (Mercury, 1961 [1984])
 * The Quintessence (Impulse!, 1962)
 * Big Band Bossa Nova (Mercury, 1962)
 * Quincy Jones Plays Hip Hits (Mercury, 1963)
 * Quincy Plays for Pussycats (Mercury, 1959-65 [1965])
 * Consummation (Solid State, 1970)
 * Suite for Pops (Horizon, 1975)
 * New Life (Horizon, 1976)
 * Come Swing with Me (Roost, 1956)
 * Cuban Fire! (Capitol Records, 1956)
 * Left & Right (Atlantic, 1968)
 * Michel Legrand Big Band Plays Richard Rogers (Phillips, 1963)
 * Swinging Guys and Dolls (Columbia, 1959)
 * The Herbie Mann String Album (Atlantic, 1967)
 * Blues to Coltrane (Candid, 1961 [1987])
 * The Modern Art of Jazz by Mat Mathews (Dawn, 1956)
 * 4 French Horns plus Rhythm (Elektra, 1958)
 * Today's Man (Mainstream, 1973)
 * Gil's Guests (Prestige, 1963)
 * Music Written for Monterey 1965 (Jazz Workshop, 1965)
 * Let My Children Hear Music (Columbia, 1972)
 * A Sure Thing (Riverside, 1962)
 * Monk (Prestige, 1954)
 * Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (Prestige, 1954)
 * The Many Facets of David Newman (Atlantic, 1969)
 * Afro/American Sketches (Prestige, 1961)
 * Nine Flags (Impulse!, 1966)
 * Bursting Out with the All-Star Big Band! (Verve, 1962)
 * The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet (Debut, 1953)
 * Oscar Pettiford (Bethlehem, 1954)
 * The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi (ABC-Paramount, 1956)
 * The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi Volume Two (ABC-Paramount, 1957)
 * Experiments in Sound (Capitol, 1958)
 * The Rites of Diablo (Roulette, 1958)
 * Walk Softly/Run Wild! (Coral, 1959)
 * A Jazz Version of Kean (Riverside, 1962)
 * Rugolomania (Columbia, 1955)
 * New Sounds by Pete Rugolo (Harmony, 1954–55, [1957])
 * Karma (Impulse, 1969)
 * Satin Brass (Capitol, 1959)
 * Composer's Workshop Ensemble (Strata-East, 1972)
 * Gemini (Jazzland, 1961)
 * Kwamina (Mercury, 1961)
 * Color Changes (Candid, 1960)
 * Song of the New World (Milestone, 1973)
 * Uhuru Afrika (Roulette, 1960)
 * Highlife (Colpix, 1963)
 * Tanjah (Polydor, 1973)
 * Mr. Flute (Atlantic, 1977)
 * Mary Lou's Mass (Mary, 1972 [1975])
 * Rights of Swing (Candid, 1961)