Lucious (Lu) Watters, 77; Traditional Jazz Trumpet Player
Lucious (Lu) Watters, a trumpeter who in 1939 teamed with trombonist Turk Murphy and clarinetist Bob Helm to form the Bay Area’s beloved Yerba Buena Jazz Band, died Sunday in Santa Rosa.
He was 77 and had retired from music more than 30 years ago.
With Murphy and Helm, Watters provided aficionados of traditional--as opposed to Dixieland--jazz a focus of live and recorded interest.
Their eight-man aggregation disdained the lengthy solos that characterized Dixieland and concentrated instead on a consummate ensemble sound, each player complementing the other.
It was the same sound that emerged from New Orleans early in the century and featured the works of such composers of that era as Scott Joplin, King Oliver and Jelly Roll Martin.
Watters, born in Santa Cruz, led a swing band in Oakland before helping revive the small-band style typified by Oliver.
Watters not only led but wrote compositions for the group including “Big Bear Stomp” and “Emperor Norton’s Hunch.”
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