Ernie Watts

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Ernie Watts (born Ernest James Watts on October 23, 1945 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone (tenor, alto and soprano) and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist. He has also toured with the Rolling Stones, joining them on their 1981 tour.

He is noted for playing the "The Mystery Horn" (actually a Conn straight necked C Melody Saxophone) solo on Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo in 1972.

He began playing saxophone at thirteen and later attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He toured with Buddy Rich in the mid-1960s and visited Africa with Oliver Nelson's group. He began working with Haden in the 1980s and won Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist.

He first met Haden in relation to work he did for films. An early film effort was playing the saxophone on the Grease soundtrack. He also played clarinet on The Color Purple soundtrack and saxophone on the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil soundtrack.[1]

Earnie Watts also was featured in the Windows XP edition Jazz preview. The song he was featured in was "Highway Blues".