Marzette Watts was an American jazz alto-saxophonist. He was born March 9, 1938 in Montgomery, Alabama, and died March 2, 1998 in Nashville. Although he had a short career in music, he is most famous for his 1966 self-titled jazz album. Watts was a pianist in his youth, but he didn’t play much music in his teens. He attended Alabama State College and was a founding member for SNCC. This association forced him to leave the state, at the request of the governor. He then moved to New York where he lived in a Cooper Square loft. This building also had Leroi Jones, later Amiri Baraka, as a tenant. Watts went back to New York to finish his college studies in 1962. He then moved to Paris to study painting and saxophone. He returned to New York in 1963 and studied under Don Cherry. He played in his loft as well as around the city along with Jiunie Booth and Henry Grimes and J.C. Moses. He also developed his ability to paint, with work heavily influenced by Willem De Kooning. Marzette’s loft attracted many up-and-coming and established musicians who would meet and sometimes play at parties. He decided to dedicate himself more fully to music and moved to Denmark to further his studies in 1965. He recorded an album for ESP Disk while in New York in 1966 and another for Savoy Records, 1968. He produced films and wrote film scores. Later, he left music behind to pursue film and record production. Later on in his life, he lived in New York and Europe. He also taught briefly at Wesleyan University. He moved to California late in his life. From Wikipedia: He died from heart failure in 1998.
