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Bijon Watson

Grammy® Award-winning trumpeter Bijon Watson’s career as a musician and educator spans more than 30 years and has taken him around the globe to perform for audiences worldwide. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Bijon attended the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School, and the University of Southern California, and was a member of the 1994 Disney All-American College Band and 1995 Disney/Grammy All-American College Jazz Band. His love for big band jazz inspired him to become a student of the great bands of the past and present and he has become a sought after and in-demand lead trumpet player that can be heard on television, in films, and award-winning recordings with iconic and world-class artists.

​Bijon plays lead trumpet for the Grammy®-nominated Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, the Grammy®-winning John Daversa Progressive Big Band, the Grammy®-winning John Beasley’s Monkestra, José Rizo’s Jazz on the Latin Side All-Stars, the late Gerald Wilson Jazz Orchestra, and many other jazz, salsa, and pop bands throughout the United States. Most recently, in 2022, as co-leader with pianist/composer Steven Feifke, Bijon can be heard showcasing his talents not  only on lead trumpet but as a featured soloist as well with their Grammy® Award-winning Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.

Bijon’s recording and/or live performance and touring credits are vast and the short list includes iconic artists such as Natalie Cole, Michael Bublé, Justin Timberlake, Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall, Michael Jackson, Arturo Sandoval, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Joe Williams, Queen Latifah, Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Nicholas Payton, Rosemary Clooney, Steve Tyrell, Eric Benét, Jamiroquai, Prince, Barbara Morrison, Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson, Alicia Keys, Chaka Khan, Luis Miguel, Enrique Iglesias, The Temptations, and Gladys Knight. On television, Bijon has performed on episodes of “American Idol”, “The Voice”, and “The Tonight Show”, as well as Grammy Awards shows, The BET Music Awards, and“Dancing With The Stars”.

Bijon’s film appearances include appearing in the award-winning film “La La Land” and recording on several soundtracks with studios such as Paramount, Fox, and Disney, including “Epic”, “Despicable Me 2”, and “The Secret Life of Pets”.

As a classically trained musician, Bijon has had the opportunity to perform as a guest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Opera, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony. A dedicated educator, Bijon is a sought-after clinician who gives master classes and clinics to colleges, and high schools throughout the United States, and Europe, as well as maintaining a private lesson studio.

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5
Album Review

Jack Jones Featuring Joey DeFrancesco: ArtWork

Read "ArtWork" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


"Those who know, know" happens to be a soon-to-be-overused phrase to describe the hip, the “In," and “the very elite of aware." Now in his Mid-80s, Jack Jones has maintained a stellar, cross-media career, all on a foundation of a once-in-a-lifetime voice. Mel Torme, one not easily prone to hyperbole, called Jones, “the best pure singer in the business." Torme and others in the Vocal Pantheon knew. With ArtWork, Jones joins forces with the late multi-instrumentalist and ...

31
Album Review

Jack Jones Featuring Joey DeFrancesco: ArtWork

Read "ArtWork" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If a singer's reputation is so impressive that he or she is able to enlist a full orchestra (with bassist John Clayton conducting) and the late organ maestro Joey DeFrancesco as featured soloist, that is certainly enough to warrant attention. The singer in this instance is two-time Grammy winner Jack Jones, the orchestra an assemblage of some of the Los Angeles area's finest musicians, enlarged by a thirty-member string section. On one hand, Jones remains a smooth ...

Album Review

Steven Feifke: The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra

Read "The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Metti assieme un talentoso giovane orchestratore come Steven Feifke, un trombettista di prima grandezza come Bijon Watson e una big band con grandi nomi e prestigiosi ospiti e il risultato è scontato. Il debutto della Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra è stato propiziato dalla collaborazione col Jazz Education Network ed ha assunto le vesti di un album includendo in organico ospiti di rilievo come Kurt Elling, Sean Jones e Chad Lefkowitz Brown. Il principale riferimento è la tradizione ...

47
Album Review

Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra: The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra

Read "The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, co-led by pianist/composer Steven Feifke and trumpeter par excellence Bijon Watson, is a seventeen-member ensemble comprising seasoned players paired with young lions who are poised to capture pride of place. Nowhere do the leaders say who is in which group, and it would be impolitic to name them here. Suffice to say that some of the names may be more familiar than others--as, for example, trombonist John Fedchock who cut his teeth with one of ...

13
Album Review

MONK'estra: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The MONK'estra is actually a number of groups of various shapes and sizes, from duo to big band, assembled under the guiding hand of composer, arranger & pianist John Beasley to—wait for it!—"play John Beasley," an artist whose admiration for Thelonious Sphere Monk is clear throughout this buoyant and resourceful album, as it was on Volumes 1 and 2 of the series, in which the MONK'estra “played Monk." Beasley wrote eight of the album's fourteen genial numbers ...

10
Album Review

John Beasley: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jim Worsley


In 2016 John Beasley gifted us with John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 1 (Mack Avenue). The buzz of that superb record led to John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 2 (Mack Avenue, 2017). Both records were Grammy nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. They were both more than Grammy worthy, but alas the competition is fierce. Beasley has been more than a Thelonious Monk fan throughout his life, including his now over forty years in the music industry. ...

5
Album Review

Derrick Gardner & The Big dig! Band: Still I Rise

Read "Still I Rise" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Trumpeter Derrick Gardner, a Chicagoan who has performed around the world with a who's who of jazz luminaries from Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Foster to Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett and Harry Connick Jr., to name only a few, traveled to Winnipeg, Canada, to assemble and record his Big Dig! Band, several sizes removed from Gardner's sextet, The Jazz Prophets, a working group since it was formed in New York City in 1991. Gardner not only shines as trumpet ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

ArtWork

Cavalry Productions
2023

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The Generation Gap...

Cellar Records
2022

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Still I Rise

Impact Jazz
2020

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MONK'estra Plays John...

Mack Avenue Records
2020

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