Monty Waters born 14 April 1938

Monty Waters (April 14, 1938 - December 23, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist and singer.

Born in Monville Charles Waters  in Modesto, California, he received his first musical training from his aunt and first played in the church. After his education in college, he was a member of a Rhythm & Blues band. Monty studied music at Modesto High and cut his teeth in the vibrant R&B scene in the late 50's touring with the bands of B.B King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Little Richard, James Brown and others before switching coasts to play in New York with the likes of Woody Shaw, Jaki Byard. 

 In San Francisco he played with King Pleasure and initiated in the early 1960s, a "Late Night Session" at the club Bop City. There he came into contact with musicians such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Red Garland and Dexter Gordon, who visited this club after their concerts. In addition, he and Pharoah Sanders, Dewey Redman and Donald Garrett formed a big band. In 1969 he moved to New York City and went with Jon Hendricks on a concert tour. 

During the 1970s he participated in the "Loft Jazz" scene. Like many other jazz musicians, he moved in the 1980s to Paris, where he worked with Chet Baker, Pharoah Sanders and Johnny Griffin. Following Mal Waldron and Marty Cook, he came to Munich, Germany and continued to work with musicians such as Embryo, Götz Tangerding, Hannes Beckmann, Titus Waldenfels, Suchredin Chronov or Joe Malinga.

Since 1995, one of Waters' main projects has been a duo with the German guitarist Titus Waldenfels, presenting a mixture of jazz and blues (with Monty not only playing saxophone but also singing) to audiences of renowned jazz festivals and in notable jazz clubs (such as the Unterfahrt in Munich). Monty's latest CD, "Moonlight in Slovakia", issued on Ladybug in 1999, has him playing with the L'ubo Šamo Quintet, a Sloviakian group - consisting of violinist L'ubo Šamo, pianist Peter Adamkovic, bassist Martin Marincak and drummer Gejza Szabados plus guitarist Titus Waldenfels - and features two of Waters' duo recordings with Waldenfels. 

He died in Munich, Germany in December 22nd 2008. Another of Jazz's unsung heroes, his death went virtually unnoticed by the international jazz community, as indeed had most of his career. The saxophonist didn't even rate a mention in the All Music Guide To Jazz and most of the standard reference books. This is indeed regrettable as Monty was clearly an artist of consummate talent in both his playing and writing ability. 

(Scant information edited from Wikipedia)