Lu Watters

Lucius Carl Watters (December 19, 1911 – November 5, 1989) was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. Jazz critic Leonard Feather said, “The Yerba Buena band was perhaps the most vital factor in the reawakening of public interest in traditional jazz on the west coast.”

Career Watters was born in Santa Cruz, California, United States, on December 19, 1911 and raised in Rio Vista, California. At St. Joseph's military academy in Sacramento, California, he belonged to the drum and bugle corps, where he was chosen "most promising bugler." (Yerba Buena was the first name of San Francisco.)

King Oliver in 1923 played "rich polyphony and rocking but relaxed tempo", without individual solos, also called "collective improvisation". Lester Koenig, the owner of Good Time Records, described it as "the ensemble style, the contrapuntal weaving of improvised melodic lines by clarinet, trumpet, and trombone, with the ensemble a setting for occasional solo breaks and choruses."

He brought in pianist Forrest Browne, who taught the band music by Jelly Roll Morton. Watters wrote music and arrangements to add to the traditional repertoire. It went on hiatus in 1942 when Watters entered the U.S. Navy but reunited at the Dawn Club after World War II.

In 1963, he came out of retirement to perform with Murphy at an anti-nuclear protest in California to prevent a nuclear plant from being constructed at Bodega Bay.

After this brief return to music, he retired again and in 1959 he was a chef at an institution in Cotati, California.

Lu Watters died on November 5, 1989, in Santa Rosa, California.

Personnel Lu Watters – trumpet Bob Scobey – trumpet Turk Murphy – trombone Squire Gersh – tuba Dick Lammi – tuba Bob Helm – clarinet Ellis Horne – clarinet Forrest Browne – piano Wally Rose – piano Russell Bennett - banjo Clancy Hayes – banjo Harry Mordecai – banjo Bill Dart – drums

Discography During its ten year existence, the Yerba Buena Jazz Band recorded for several small labels.

In 1941 And 1942, the band recorded in San Francisco for the young label Jazz Man Records. Four sessions recorded for Jazz Man Records resulted in 19 released 78 rpm sides.

When the band reorganized in 1946 after World War II it recorded for another new label, West Coast Records. The first seven sessions were held on seven consecutive Monday evenings from April 16, 1946, to May 27 in San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom. The sound went by direct telephone line to a nearby recording studio where the masters were cut. West Coast recorded additional Avalon sessions in September the same year and February the next. The nine sessions resulted in 26 released sides on 78s.

During the fall of 1946, ABC radio broadcast a 15-minute show three times a week at 11:45 p.m. from the Dawn Club. A fan recorded selections of these shows for his personal enjoyment. Sixteen songs from these broadcasts were released on a Fairmont Records LP record in 1973. The same fan also recorded a “This is Jazz” August 16, 1947, radio broadcast featuring the band. Fairmont also released seven numbers from this broadcast on one side of an LP.

The above are all of the recordings of the band with its original front line of Watters, Scobey, and Murphy.

In 1949 and 1950, after Scobey and Murphy had left the band, several recordings were made at Hambone Kelly's for Norman Granz that resulted in 39 sides that were mostly released on Mercury, and later on Clef, Down Home, and Verve. It includes all the band's released sides and several unreleased ones through 1947, except for three recording made from the Avalon Ballroom in February 1947.