Mary Watkins

An eclectic composer who functions comfortably in both traditional and jazz customs, Watkins draws zero firm limitations around anybody style. Components of blues, gospel, region/folk, and pop slide quickly into her function, and her flexibility like a composer, arranger, pianist, and maker is shown in the items she has made up for symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, film, as well as the theatre. Created in Denver, Watkins started her formal musical teaching when she was four, and by age eight had been beginning to improvise and compose brief piano items. After finding a level in music structure from Howard College or university in 1972, she performed with jazz combos in the Washington, D.C. region, then shifted out to the western coast and founded her personal jazz quartet. Many albums, and several commissions and honours, soon followed. Significant among Watkins’ many compositions may be the jazz rating for the musical play Woman Lester Sings the Blues, predicated on the life span of Lester Youthful, and THE BRAND NEW Nutcracker Sweetie, a jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet.