Dick Oatts

Who is Dick Oatts?

Richard "Dick" Oatts is a jazz saxophonist from Jefferson, Iowa. He became interested in saxophone due to his father Jack Oatts. To this day he still plays on the same Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone his father gave to him. He attended Drake University before beginning his professional career in Minneapolis in 1972 and in 1977 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. He began releasing his own CDs in the 1990s and has been a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music since 1989 and recently joined the faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia in 2006.