Born and raised in the state of Iowa, Dick Oatts was brought up in a musical family. He was introduced to the saxophone by his father Jack Oatts, a respected jazz educator and saxophonist. After high school, Dick attended Drake University and in 1972 he began his professional career in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Shortly after moving to NYC in 1977, he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Since then, he has toured, recorded, and performed as a sideman in small groups with Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, Dom Salvador, Vic Juris, Terell Stafford, Ray Mantilla, Jon Faddis, Fred Hersch, and several others.
His big band and large ensemble experience includes Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Jon Faddis Jazz Band, Tito Puente and many others. Dick has been a featured artist with the Metropole Orchestra, WDR Big Band, Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band, Norboten Radio Big Band, High Coast Jazz Orchestra, Mats Holmquist/Dick Oatts Orchestra, and others. Dick has accompanied such vocalists as Joe Williams, Sara Vaughn. Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Neena Freelon, and Milton Nascimento. As a Steeplechase recording artist, Dick has recorded 10 solo CDs and five co-led CDs.
For the past 35 years, Dick has appeared at college jazz festivals as a soloist and clinician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Mid-East, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and Taiwan. Dick is a professor at the Boyer School of Music and Dance at Temple University and has been an “Artist in Residence” at the Amsterdam Conservatory since 1998.