Brent “Doc” Watkins wasn’t always known for his San Antonio swing. Although his Pearl lounge, Jazz, TX, has been filled with honking trumpets and skittering drums for 10 years, he spent his youth devoted to classical.That journey from concert hall to bandstand is now chronicled in a new book: Jazz, TX: A Love Letter to Live Music, Community, and the Little Club That Could. Watkins first learned to play when his mother and stepfather enrolled him in piano lessons at seven years old. He soon fell in love with classical music, and sought to make a living from it well into his 20s.Then, Watkins had an epiphany.“I got my bachelor's, master's, and doctorate in classical piano, and then I realized that actually wasn't what I wanted to do,” Watkins explains. “I wanted to play music every night, and the obvious way to do that was to get back into jazz, which I had learned as a kid because of my [birth] father.”“I think a lot of people thought that I had lost my mind, but it's what I wanted to do, and it ended up being the right thing,” he says. ...read more read less