Blue Notes: Derek Watkins remembered

The deaths of jazz musicians often feature on the obituary pages of British newspapers, but the late trumpeter Derek Watkins could be the first to have made the obituary column in the satirical magazine Private Eye.

That column, which always begins with the words "So farewell then …" and is credited to the fictional E.J. Thribb (17½), offers a portentously banal reflection on a well-recognised aspect of the subject's life.

In the case of Watkins, it was to have played the lead trumpet part on the soundtrack for every James Bond film from Dr No in 1962 to last year's Skyfall. Perhaps the most prominent of his performances involved providing the ominous growls that set off Shirley Bassey's vocal on 1964's Goldfinger.

Watkins' career - sadly ended by sarcoma, a rare form of cancer at the age of 68 - was primarily that of a session player, performing on more than 40 film soundtracks and countless TV shows, as well as on pop, rock and classical recordings which included albums or singles for The Beatles, Eric Clapton and Elton John.

He was respected by leading figures in the jazz world and worked in big bands with Kenny Wheeler, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, John Dankworth, Stan Tracey, Phil Woods and many more.

Fellow trumpeters were particularly impressed. Gillespie called him "Mr Lead", Wheeler described him as "the finest of the best", and Chuck Findley said he was "the greatest trumpet player I ever met in my life, and I have played with them all".

Watkins made a couple of jazz albums in his own name - 1995's Over the Rainbow with the Brian Lemon Quartet, and 1996's Stardust, made with the same musicians augmented by Warren Vaché on cornet - but his soundtrack work set me thinking about how a featured instrument in the hands of the right musician can be a determining element in the whole atmosphere of a movie. Quite often that instrument is a trumpet.