Jeff “Tain” Watts majored in classical percussion at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University where he was primarily a timpanist. He later attended Berklee School of Music. He joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceeded to win three Grammy Awards with the ensemble for Black Codes From The Underground, J Mood and Marsalis Standard Time. Watts left Wynton Marsalis in 1988. After working with George Benson, Harry Connick. Jr. and McCoy Tyner, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quartet in 1989, winning Grammys for I Heard You Twice the First Time and Contemporary Jazz. He has an extensive discography as a sideman and ten albums as a leader.

 

In the film and television industry, Watts has appeared as a musician on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and as an actor in Spike Lee’s Mo Better Blues. He joined Kenny Garrett’s band after returning to New York in 1995 and continued to record and tour with Branford Marsalis as well as Danilo Perez, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Kenny Kirkland, Courtney Pine, Geri Allen, Alice Coltrane, Greg Osby, McCoy Tyner, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Harry Connick Jr, and Ravi Coltrane.

 

Jeff “Tain” Watts is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, a recipient of eight Grammy awards, most recently with the Metropolitan Opera and was twice voted Drummer of the Year by Modern Drummer Magazine.