When Reggie Watkins came on screen for our video interview last week he wore a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap. When I jokingly expressed my sympathy for his devotion to the once-proud team now seemingly committed to mediocrity, Watkins would have none of it. He’s a Pittsburgh ride or die, but intercity rivalries aside, he also loves Cleveland jazz and returns to a familiar stage at BOP STOP for a gig Friday.
“The Northeast Ohio and the Pittsburgh scene have kind of merged together in many ways, , the trombonist said. “So we’ve become very familiar with the Northeast Ohio scene and the musicians there and what’s happening there in education and musically, and vice versa. We’re in and out of each other’s area.”
Watkins has been in our area a lot lately. That was him landing a knockout solo on “The Pugilist” with Sam Blakeslee’s Large Group at BLU Jazz+ in December and on the front line of Stephen Philip Harvey’s octet at last year’s Hingetown Jazz Festival.
A musical conversation between Cleveland and Pittsburgh seems only natural given the cities’ proximity, but Watkins credits a familiar name with being the musical matchmaker. “I think a lot of that is because of Sean [Jones]. He supported musicians and music scenes in both cities.”
Watkins described Jones’ ten years at Duquesne University as a catalyst for the resurgence of the jazz scene in the Steel City. So he’s an honorary Pittsburgher,” Watkins said, “And don’t tell Cleveland people that, but he is for sure.”
Watkins himself is somewhat of an honorary Pittsburgher, having grown up in nearby Wheeling. After graduating from West Virginia University, he came to Pittsburgh in the mid ‘90s and was in and out of town, taking jobs on cruise ships and touring with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Bop Nouveau starting in 1999. An eight-year interval in Austin ended in 2014 when Watkins and his wife, a native Pittsburgher, returned to find a scene reinvigorated by support from the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “Then along came Con Alma, which brought a lot of music to the city by creating a new scene, and [people] started talking about a jazz renaissance.”
One sure sign of a scene’s health is its ability to attract young players, and Watkins is bringing three of Pittsburgh’s best. Pianist Michael Bernabe is from Trenton, New Jersey, but came to Duquesne University for college. Child prodigy Jason Washington Jr. seems poised to inherit the Pittsburgh drum legacy of Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey, Roger Humphries and Tain Watts, and fellow Pittsburgh native Eli Naragon made BOP STOP a virtual second home when he was a student at Oberlin.
“The way we interpret the music together, the way we communicate on stage, there’s a lot going on there,” Watkins said of his young band. “I wanted to record that band because everything is clicking.”
That recording, Rivers, (BYNK Records, 2025), confirms his intuition in the strongest manner. The 13 Watkins originals lean heavily on the tradition of Pittsburgh jazz where, Watkins said, “the ability and willingness to swing and play the blues is very much paramount. Remember: the leader of our scene is Roger Humphries.”
Rivers opens with a head fake, 40 seconds of a swirling freedom that might have been clipped from Miles Davis’ mid-‘60s quintet but soon settles into a swaggering blues. Here and throughout Rivers, Bernabe offers surprising, post-Hancock harmonies and witty references to piano greats. Washington pounces on the beat with an irresistible lift and drive, and Naragon’s big tone is a tower of strength.
Watkins bulls through the music with a combination of muscle and grace hat admirers of Pittsburgh Steelers great Franco Harris will immediately recognize. Together, they make a case for Pittsburgh as a vital jazz source.
It’s a case Watkins makes on and off the bandstand. “Let me tell you this: I was having this interview with a non-jazz guy. He said he recently saw a list of notables from Pittsburgh and the jazz list was extra, extra long. It was the biggest list of all the categories,” He said.
“This has become part of my thing. I’m here to inform people that jazz is part of our identity. That’s who we are. Our identity is jazz. It’s Mary Lou Williams. It’s Art Blakey. It’s the in the people that have made it happen here. It was marginalized, but this is our history.”
Reggie Watkins featuring Michael Bernabe, Eli Naragon and Jason Washington Jr., Friday, June 20, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, Tickets $20, available here.
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
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