Amalgam

Since the mid-’60s, Trevor Watts, a British saxophonist has been involved in the British free jazz scene and improvised music scene. Perhaps his most prominent contributions are to the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and other projects with John Stevens. This work occupied the first 20 years of his career. However, he has shifted his focus to his Moire Music projects from the 1980s. Watts was born in Halifax, and he joined the Royal Air Force at age 18. He was stationed in Germany from the late ’50s to the early ’60s. It was there that he met and started making music with trombonist Paul Rutherford. Watts was a founding member of the New Jazz Orchestra. This orchestra supported bluesmen like Sonny Boy Williamson and rock musicians. In the mid-’60s, a quintet featuring Stevens and Rutherford was formed. The group became the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, or SME (Spontaneous Music Ensemble) after it opened in London’s Little Theatre Club in 1966. SME, an improvisation-based group, went through many iterations. Some of these didn’t include Watts. Amalgam was formed by Watts and Barry Guy during one of these periods. Watts returned to the SME fold in 1968. He and Stevens would remain the core of the rotating cast for eight more years. Watts played in this period with Guy and other British improvisers in London Jazz Composers Orchestra, as well as other groups with Stevens like the rock-oriented Away. While Trevor Watts is often associated with abstract and free music in the 1980s and 1990s, he led a variety of groups under the Moire Music moniker that focused more on composition and world rhythms. These Moire Music groups, which range from a 14-piece band and a drum orchestra to three members, have recorded for Watts’ Arc label as well as the ECM. Watts reunited with Peter Knight, a violinist from Steeleye Span, in 1999 for a series duo shows. Trevor Watts has toured the globe, from New Zealand to the Americas, over the years. He has been a guest speaker at workshops and received many grants and commissions for his music. Allmusic

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