Watts, who had been in a nursing home for months struggling with emphysema and pneumonia, died Tuesday at The Alliance Community in DeLand.
Watts released a series of singles on Baton Records, including the instrumental hits “Hard Times (the Slop)" in 1957 and “Jookin'" in 1961.
Watts established his professional reputation in New York in the 1950s, where he played with the house band at Sugar Ray Robinson's club in Harlem. He also played with Lionel Hampton's orchestra and on rock 'n' roll package tours with Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.
Saxophonists from King Curtis to Bruce Springsteen sideman Clarence Clemons were influenced by his booming tenor sound.
“I like to feel I'm leaving a mark in the form," Watts told the Orlando Sentinel in 1987. “I'd like for it to be that when I die, my music don't die with me. I'd like for somebody to say, 'I got a lot out of what Noble did. He left a lot for us to go on.'"
Born in DeLand, Watts attended Florida A&M University, where played in the marching band with future jazz legends Cannonball and Nat Adderley.
Recently, Watts had been recognized as a musical icon. The African American Museum of the Arts in DeLand dedicated an amphitheater named after Watts in May. And Stetson University, where he raked leaves as a boy to pay for music lessons, gave him an honorary doctorate in 2000.
He is survived by his wife, June; a son, Robert Hill; a daughter, Natalie W. Brown; a sister Constance Brenson; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. -Associated Press
For more information contact All About Jazz.
