Last I heard him was two years ago at Chelsea venue the Pheasantry in singer Tessa Souter’s band with her husband Billy Drummond and Conor Chaplin.
The standards selected for this upcoming release include jazz choices Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘The Nearness of You’, Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight’ Johnny Green’s ‘Body and Soul’ and ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’ by Rodgers and Hart plus pop and rock covers of Paul Simon’s ‘Old Friends’ and The Band’s ‘The Weight.’
A studio album this was recorded during three days of the early half of May in 2023. It’s pretty middle of the road fare and I don’t mean that as a criticism. These aren’t weasel words, it’s just what it is.
If you want the more pulsating side of Watson it isn’t here – go hear that on his album released more than a decade ago with Manu Katché Live in Concert.
But with the eye more on the sparrow and what’s to expect for me ‘The Nearness of You’ and ‘Body and Soul’ work best of all.
I suppose if you are a rock fan and then a jazz fan (with me it’s the other way round) you will go to the Paul Simon and The Band tracks first. They are quite manicured but then most solo piano albums in the jazz idiom covering anything respectfully are quite manicured. Again that isn’t a criticism just an observation.
As for his own originals Watson’s sentimental side is certainly expressed. You get an Abdullah Ibrahim quality to the lilting title track ‘Calling You Home’ which works very well. The fat clusters of notes that spread all over ‘Tetrad’ streaming ahead of release also coagulate into brightly voiced evocative splodges of sound and cadential passion. Stylistically Watson is like Acoustic Ladyland’s Tom Cawley a bit and also reminds me of the sound of Nick Ramm (known for his work with flautist Finn Peters).
I’m a Billy Jenkins fan more than a Katie Melua one – both artists with whom Watson has worked.
So just by these examples you can see how versatile Watson is whether accompanying a songstress, playing jazz on his own self squired releases or the blues.
The album I like that he is on most is Guy Barker 2002 Provocateur classic Soundtrack.
Watson’s jazz chops can be heard on an album like The Loop probably even more than on this new work.
I’d say on this new one at the risk of stating the obvious that Watson has assimilated a lot of his interests and past experiences musically into both his subtle writing and playing style. But that means he isn’t a ventriloquist or even more subtly going down the esque-is-more route not that there’s anything wrong with that. (That’s playing in the mould of someone else or doing a tribute to them.) So Calling You Home is an original conception even bearing in mind the familiarities of the framing. It’s highly decorous, very easy on the ear, classy and on the basis certainly a connoisseur choice of clout with the only caveat that if you’re looking for a little edge you’ll have been misdirected. No animals were hurt in the making of this recording. But equally there’s no need at all for Watson to kill his darlings given the concision and clarity of these carefully carved out renderings.
- Hear Watson back in Chelsea next month at the 606 on 8 July.
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Chris Cheek, Dear Paul: Chris Cheek, Zach Radwine and Bob Deboo Play Music By Paul Motian, Fresh Sound ****
Tenor saxophonist Chris Cheek’s connection with Paul Motian’s music provides the alpha and omega for this recording, made with the supportive pianist Zach Radwine and bassist Bob DeBoo at Clayton Studios in St Louis in June 2024. The trio plays twelve Motian compositions, among them ‘Blue Midnight’, ‘In the Year of the Dragon’, ‘Drum Music’ and ‘Manhattan Melodrama’. Cheek was drawn to the particular openness of Motian’s writing, where concise melodies and spare chord indications leave considerable space for improvisation and interpretation. The project began during the Covid period, when Cheek was living in St Louis and working with Radwine and DeBoo and developed into a recording intended to explore and document a repertoire that remains central to Motian’s distinctive contribution to jazz composition.
Cheek first worked with Motian in New York in the 1990s, becoming a member of the Electric Bebop Band, where he played alongside Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel,Wolfgang Muthspiel and bassist Steve Swallow. He appeared on several of Motian’s recordings over the following decade, including Reincarnation of a Love Bird (1994), Flight of the Blue Jay (1997), Play Monk and Powell (1999), Europe (2001) and Holiday for Strings (2002). He was also part of the ensemble that became the Paul Motian Band and recorded Garden of Eden, made for ECM in 2004. Cheek’s involvement with Motian’s music was therefore not simply that of a later interpreter: he had been closely involved with the composer and drummer’s working bands for many years.
The other two musicians are both established figures on the St Louis scene. Pianist Zach Radwine began playing piano at the age of three and was taking lessons by four. His 2023 album Turn features bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Joseph Winstein-Hibbs, with Radwine’s own compositions forming the basis of the eight-track set. DeBoo, who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, began as a drummer before moving towards electric and then double bass, studying at the University of North Texas and later at New York’s New School.
The Dear Paul repertoire draws widely on Motian’s catalogue. ‘Prelude 2 Narcissus’ and ‘Garden of Eden’ both come from Garden of Eden, the large, guitar-rich Paul Motian Band recording on which Cheek also played, while ‘Manhattan Melodrama’ is from the same album.
‘In the Year of the Dragon’ reaches back to It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago, where it appears in a spacious trio setting with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, and was subsequently recorded by Geri Allen, Charlie Haden and Motian on their 1989 album of the same name.
‘Blue Midnight’ is from Trioism, another Frisell-Lovano-Motian trio recording from 1994, while ‘Once Around the Park’ goes back further, appearing on Motian’s Misterioso as well as Fragments, the 1986 collaboration with Paul Bley, John Surman and Bill Frisell. ‘Morpion’ and ‘Endgame’ come from Holiday for Strings, recorded with the Electric Bebop Band, in which Cheek was a member.
If I had to pick out one tune, though, it would be ‘The Owl of Cranston’, which feels to me like the heart of the album. Larry Goldings did a great version of it too with Motian and Larry Grenadier on Awareness that came out in 1997.
‘Shakalaka’ has an earlier trio appearance on Motian in Tokyo, with Frisell and Lovano, while ‘The Owl of Cranston’ dates back to The Story of Maryam and was later recorded live at the Village Vanguard.
‘Drum Music’ originates on Le Voyage, where it forms part of ‘Cabala/Drum Music’, an early example of Motian treating the drum kit as something more than a time-keeping instrument. ‘The Divider’ comes from Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. II, recorded with the later Trio 2000 + Two. Taken together, the selections span Motian’s work from the late 1970s through to his later bands, with several of the pieces having appeared in markedly different settings over the years.
I only managed to go hear Motian (1931-2011) play once, with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano at London’s Barbican in 1998. I haven’t seen Cheek or the other two musicians live, although I particularly liked Wild Life, a 2016 Jellymould Jazz album Cheek made with the fine London based Austrian guitarist Hannes Riepler.
What I like about Cheek’s playing is its honesty and clean articulation and, listening to this fine album, there is clearly a deep knowledge of and affection for Motian’s music, expressed ably with his bandmates.
I like all the tunes here and recommend playing the album through as a whole as they hang well together in terms of the sequencing meaning the running order. Motian’s compositional style is quirky, often taking unexpected detours, and isn’t at all a one-size-fits-all approach.
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Chucho Valdés, Uncut, InnerJazz/InnerCat *****
The power of music on memory. This takes me back instantly to hearing Chucho Valdés at the Boisdale in Canary Wharf in 2011. Read my review run on Jazzwise back then to begin with. I was blown away then just as I now today.
Approaching 85 if you didn’t know that you’d think Uncut was the work of the hippest youngest new jazz gunslinger out there who plays Afro Cuban piano like on a genius level.
The Quivicán, Cuba born Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez has long been a towering figure in Afro-Cuban jazz famed for his leadership of Irakere, yet Uncut is remarkably humble and its vulnerability is part of its super power. The music speaks to you. It is Valdés alone at the piano, recorded in a single session without edits or second takes. No rhythm section, no orchestral colour, just the pianist and the instrument. It gives the playing an immediacy that is not always possible when there is an ensemble around him.
Valdés has been here before. Solo Piano dates from 1991, while Solo: Live in New York, recorded in 1998 was released in 2001. This is just as good. Uncut returns to the format after more than two decades.
The repertoire is mainly Valdés’ own and several pieces have appeared on earlier recordings. It is quite brief. As ever never mind the width feel the quality. ‘Circles In The Air’ gets things under way with a light, open quality.
‘Son Montuno’ (Chucho Valdés) brings the Cuban element more firmly into view. Valdés recorded it on Bele Bele en La Habana (above) in 1998, where the fuller ensemble gives the piece a very different weight. Here he has to suggest the rhythmic framework from the piano.
There is a similar story with the pianist’s ‘La Habanera de Lorraine’ previously recorded as ‘Encore – Lorraine’s Habanera’ on Live at the Village Vanguard and also heard on Clásicos Cubanos (En Vivo). The habanera rhythm is obvious enough, but the solo setting puts more emphasis on the melody and on Valdés’s harmonic movement around it.
‘Ponle la Clave’ (Chucho Valdés) was also recorded on Live at the Village Vanguard. The clue is in the title. Clave is at the heart of Cuban rhythmic thinking, and Valdés manages to keep that sense of pulse alive without percussion actually being present.
‘Pavane’ (Gabriel Fauré) is the first of two pieces here that aren’t by Valdés. Fauré’s Pavane, Op. 50, is familiar territory for a pianist with Valdés’ classical interests and he has recorded it before. Here it is pared right back. The melody carries much of the weight and Valdés doesn’t need to do much to make the piano sound spacious.
Check a YouTube stream later this afternoon
‘Son XXI’ (Enrique Ubieta) is the other exception. Ubieta wrote the piece and Valdés previously recorded it as ‘Son XXI (Para Pia)’ on Live at the Village Vanguard.
‘Canción de Cuna para Miguel’ is another returning Valdés piece, previously recorded on Clásicos Cubanos (En Vivo). It is one of the quieter moments here, the piano carrying the lullaby quality without any need for embellishment. ‘Mambo Bianco’ (Chucho Valdés) closes the album with the rhythmic impulse restored.
So returning to thoughts of hearing him live 15 years ago when he was about to turn 70 that time he was with his band the Afro-Cuban Messengers plus guest singer Mayra Caridad Valdés, Chucho’s sister. It was a very strong performance by the pianist, dazzling with his consummate grasp of compound rhythms and intuitive improvising especially on danzón and in montuno sections. This new release however stripped back it just as strong as that memorable evening so long ago. Dear reader, be good to yourself, and soak it all in like mother’s milk today.
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