Wah Wah Watson

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Wah Wah Watson (actually Melvin Ragin ) (born December 8, 1950 in Richmond , Virginia - † October 24, 2018 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American jazz and funk guitarist. He got his stage name from the wah wah pedal when playing guitar. Because of the similarity of names, he is often confused with the blues and funk guitarist Johnny Guitar Watson .

life and work

Watson began his career in 1967 when he was about sixteen with the Motown studio band The Funk Brothers . In the Motown studios he was involved in the introduction of the wah-wah pedal into the Motown sound. As a studio musician, he was also involved in many important soul, disco and funk sessions, pieces and albums - including Papa Was A Rolling Stone from the Temptations , Marvin Gayes Let's Get It On , Rare Earths album Ma and on Edwin Starr's album Stop the War Now . He also starred with Quincy Jones Body Heat and was featured on Off the Wall by Michael Jackson . During the second half of the seventies he was part of Herbie Hancock's fusion bands and is on the albums Man-Child (1975), Secrets (1976), VSOP (1977), Feets Don't Fail Me Now (1979) and Mr. Hands ( 1980) heard.

The total number of albums sold that featured Wah Wah Watson is estimated to have sold over 100 million copies. The Motown Historical Museum in Detroit awarded him the title The Man of Motown in 2003 .

He died at the age of 67 in October 2018 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica.

Discography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Motown guitarist Wah Wah Watson has died. In: fr.de . October 27, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Watson, wah wah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ragin, Melvin (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American funk and fusion guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Richmond , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 2018
Place of death Santa Monica , California