Trumpeter who played on every James Bond film soundtrack from Dr No to Skyfall
The trumpeter Derek Watkins, who has died aged 68 of cancer, was recognised by his fellow professionals as the finest lead player of his generation. To see him take his place in a big-band trumpet section or orchestral ensemble was to be reassured that all would be well. Dizzy Gillespie, no mean judge of trumpeters, called him "Mr Lead".
Watkins played on every James Bond film soundtrack from Dr No (1962) to Skyfall (2012), his blazing lead trumpet work evident on Monty Norman's iconic James Bond theme. The 19-year-old Watkins's spine-chilling trumpet growls set the scene on John Barry's Goldfinger (1964) theme, sung by Shirley Bassey, and Watkins was also prominent on Bill Conti's For Your Eyes Only (1981) score. As Barry said, Watkins "never failed to deliver the goods".
The film composer John Altman recalled that Watkins nearly missed out on GoldenEye (1995), composed by Eric Serra, until the producers asked Altman to "re-score the central tank chase through Saint Petersburg in more traditional James Bond style for a large trumpet section". Watkins duly played lead. He also performed on Altman's score for Shall We Dance? (1995). Altman remembers: "The producers had him playing an octave higher and he just went ahead and did it as if it was the easiest thing in the world." Watkins was the lead trumpet on the Mission: Impossible (1996) and Chicago (2002) soundtracks, as he was on many similar film score assignments in his career.
Lead playing for a trumpeter requires a command of dynamics, a certainty of tone and execution, an exemplary high-note facility and a willingness to take responsibility for what the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz defined as "matters of phrasing and articulation for the section as a whole". Watkins possessed all of these qualities in abundance.
He came from a musical background; his grandfather led a brass band and his father played in brass bands and ran a palais band. Born in Reading, Watkins played the cornet as a child and worked in his father's band at Reading's Majestic Ballroom as a teenager. Once in London as a professional, he joined Jack Dorsey's band at the Astoria Ballroom in 1963, staying for two years before moving on to Billy Ternent's resident orchestra at the London Palladium.
Thereafter he trod the freelance path, taking his place among the seasoned professionals who shoehorned themselves into a bewildering array of movie soundtrack sessions, commercial jingle recordings and one-off concert engagements and recording dates. Watkins gained a reputation for reliability, prodigious talent and unruffled, good humour whatever the situation.
He performed on record with every British jazz bandleader of consequence – including Harry South, Stan Tracey, Tubby Hayes, John Dankworth, Laurie Johnson, Don Lusher, Mike Gibbs and Colin Towns – and recently recorded with the BBC Big Band. He also developed a lengthy association with the German composer Peter Herbolzheimer and toured and recorded in Europe with the marvellous multinational Clarke-Boland Big Band, performing alongside the gifted trumpeter Benny Bailey, with the tenor saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Tony Coe among his colleagues.
Watkins toured Europe with Benny Goodman in 1970-71, performed with the trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and spent time in the US touring with Tom Jones and recording with top American soloists. He was also an accomplished jazz soloist, his creativity exemplified in two albums that he made for the Zephyr label, in a duo setting with the cornettist Warren Vaché.
Often heard with the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras on special recordings, Watkins worked with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and James Last among many others, also recording with the Beatles, Elton John and Eric Clapton. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music and designed a range of trumpets and flugelhorns much admired by professional players.
I have a pleasing memory of seeing Watkins leading a brass chorale at the funeral, in 2008, of an earlier session hero, the trumpeter Tommy McQuater, a tribute from one master musician to another. Faced with the onset of his illness two years ago, Watkins and his family began a fundraising campaign for the charity Sarcoma UK.
Watkins is survived by his wife, Wendy, their children, Sean, Ellie and Sarah, and three grandchildren.
• Derek Roy Watkins, trumpeter, born 2 March 1945; died 22 March 2013