The Frost School’s HMI Jazz Septet performs a high-energy concert of new originals with Jeff “Tain” Watts, one of the most in-demand jazz drummers in the world today. Electrifying ensemble interplay emerges, inspired by Watts’s artistic ingenuity, explosive power, gritty street funk, and mastery of complex rhythms and time signatures. A true jazz innovator and six-time Grammy winner, Watts has performed, toured and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Danilo Pérez, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Kenny Kirkland, Courtney Pine, Geri Allen, and others. He has recorded six albums as a leader, and has worked in the television and film industry as both a musician on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and as an actor, playing the role of Rhythm Jones in Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues.