Dotsero - Jazz

A name taken from a small mountain town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Dotsero means “something unique” according to a Ute Native American legend. It means DOT-ZERO on the earliest geographical railroad maps, but to jazz fans worldwide, DOTSERO means Smooth Jazz at its best, full of energy and spontaneity that few artists in the genre have been able to match. The band has performed at major jazz festivals: Red Rocks Amphitheater, JVC Winter Park Jazz Fest, Jazz Tracks Catalina Island Jazz Fest and the Cancun Jazz Festival, among others. From Ala Carte Ala Park in San Francisco to West Palm Beach’s Sunfest, Dotsero has crisscrossed the nation performing its exciting brand of jazz.

Dotsero’s critically acclaimed CD “Off the Beaten Path” launched the group to national prominence in 1990 and paved the way for the amazing breakthrough success of its second outing, “Jubilee.” The release spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Radio and Records charts, was No. 1 on the Gavin Report’s Adult Alternative chart and spent ten weeks on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart. In 1994, Dotsero released “Out of Hand,” which cracked the Top 10 on Gavin’s A2 Adult Alternative chart and the top 25 of the Radio and Records charts, and received rave reviews from a variety of jazz critics and radio programmers across the nation. The top 29 radio hit “Essensual” and 1998’s similarly successful “Jumpin’ Thru Hoops” kept the momentum going through the end of the decade. In 2000 Dotsero hooked up with Smooth Jazz mainstay Russ Freeman to collaborate on “West of Westchester,” the band’s sixth project, which was released on Freeman’s own label, Peak Records, and distributed by Concord Jazz Records. The project’s success led to the band joining Freeman’s band, the Ripppingtons, on a successful east coast tour in which Dotsero stood the audience time and again. “Fresh Pants,” the band’s 7th CD, was released in 2004 and heralded as “one of the genre’s best of the year.”

Dotsero lives up to its “something unique” definition, bringing style, energy, charisma, humor and most importantly spontaneity to each live performance. “When people come to hear Dotsero play, they are not interested in hearing the music, they want to see the music through performance and feel something as well. Our goal is for our shows to be a total sensory experience,” says Stephen Watts, the band’s sax player. “The best thing is that anything can happen at one of our performances.” The band has performed with a number of leading jazz acts over the years including Spyro Gyra, the Yellowjackets, Lee Ritenour, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Sample, Dave Grusin, Richard Elliott, Nancy Wilson. David Sanborn, the Rippingtons, Norman Brown, Stanley Jordan, David Benoit and Jeff Lorber. Whether at home in Colorado or on the road the world over, Dotsero takes pride in making its live show something people will remember.

Few bands have been able to stay together and focused for even a few years, let alone the over 18 years Dotsero has been performing and recording for audiences far and wide. Over the years, Dotsero has racked up an impressive number of awards and honors. The core members received their BA’s in music from the University of Colorado and University of Denver. In 2001, brothers David and Stephen Watts were named as two of the top five graduates in Arts for the last 125 years at C.U. along with jazz greats Glenn Miller and Dave Grusin. In addition, Dotsero was nominated for an Oasis award for “Best Up and Coming Group” in 2001 which is the Smooth Jazz genre’s answer to the Grammy Awards. Along with being awarded Denver Mayor Wellington Webb’s prestigious “Excellence in the Arts” honor, Dotsero was also recognized by the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre for being a performer and participant in its 60th anniversary season.

Dotsero has also won the Westword Magazine Music Awards jazz category for four consecutive years (1997 - 2000). The Westword Readers’ Poll voted Dotsero “Best Jazz Band” in Denver for a record of eleven years in a row. Along with being included on numerous radio station promo samplers, Dotsero was among the elite names in Smooth Jazz to be included in home town radio station CD104.3’s first radio sampler in late 2001. In April of 2001, Dotsero’s #1 national hit Jubilee reached stellar success by being taken up on the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The CD was played during Endeavor’s mission, including 187 orbits of the globe, and the band received a special certificate commemorating the event.