Charlie Watts - Jim Keltner Project

Charlie Watts

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 2000)
• Original Release Date: May 23, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Higher Octave CyberOctave
• ASIN: B00004T9SP
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,023 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The Charlie Watts-Jim Keltner Project contains some undeniably bewitching grooves, all of which reflect a 21st-century intersection of world beat, techno, and jazz. But here's the usual question: Is this meeting of great drummers really a jazz album? Sure, the tunes are named as dedications to a Mt Rushmore-sized litany of jazz drummers. But the tunes don't portray the individual drummers' styles. Rather, they evoke a feeling or mood--like a world tour played on acoustic and electronic percussion with a dance-club vibe prevalent throughout. Elements of swing, trad jazz (Watts's elemental Baby Dodds-like pulse on the spatial dirge "Tony Williams"), and bebop (the appearance of an uptempo piano trio in the Afro-techno aural collage known as "Max Roach") occur throughout. Overall, though, this is less a jazz set than a percussion ensemble's take on the global village, with "Kenny Clarke" sounding an eastern vibe and "Billy Higgins" portraying a blues beat as it might sound in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, via Bombay. The concluding "Elvin Suite" is the most satisfying, and not coincidentally the most acoustic in character, with a Coltrane-ish tempo, McCoy Tyner-like piano filigrees, stylized swing brushes, and an enchanting South African-style vocal chorus with blues shout-outs. Watts, Keltner, and their label dub this "techno-world beat exotica," and it certainly shows traces of all. --Chip Stern

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You've got to hear this!, May 24, 2000

By	T. Hayes (Niigata-ken Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Unlike anything you probably ever expected from Charlie Watts, and quite unlike anything else, actually. Wonderfully complex but basic drumming, compelling loops and editing, with jazz progressions overlaying, complementing, or driving throughout. Anyone into the Stones, or drumming, or modern recording techniques....you gotta get this one! You can jog to it, too!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what you expect at all, from the Stones Drummer!, September 14, 2000

By	"paul_b21" (Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This is an absolutely wicked album. There are two CD's in the box, a blue and a red, so you get loads for your hard-earned. The 'blue' is more accessible of the two, and basically grooving and funky. The 'red' is heavier and not so melodic, but has the most fantastic groovin' track called 'airto' - you just have to hear it. Charlie Watts is not 'Mr. Awesome Technique Drum Man', but if is responsible for putting this stuff together, then all power to him - he sure sets a nice groove going, and he obviously loves what he does. Don't worry, this music bears absolutely no resemblence to anything by the Stones (luckily). Great piano playing, some drum & base, some ethnic sounds, woodwind. Its different, unique & the best album I've bought for ages ....... the other reviews I read gave me the impression it was worth a punt. IT IS.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars charlie and jim ? - yes its a winner !, August 27, 2000

By	dave lowe (uk) - See all my reviews

An excellent uplifting cd!- a jazz based cross platform that mixes styles and tempo, you can't help tapping, floating and trancing along with this one. I didn't know watt to expect, but these guys know how to mix it, turn up the volume and go with it...another project on the way?