The Ernie Watts Quartet
The Ernie Watts Quartet
Presented by the San Luis Obispo County Jazz Federation (http://slojazz.org)
Unity Concert Hall
January 18, 2020
Photo Courtesy of Craig Updegrove, (c) 2020
We bundled up and got in line more than an hour before the concert. It was, after all, going to be a full house. The Ernie Watts Quartet was coming off a tour, and they promised to smoke the place.
This was Ernie Watts at his best. He brought his A Team with him, and they played one long set — around an hour & forty-five minutes — without a break. The concert comprised six tunes interspersed with just the right amount of jazz history and musical philosophy from Watts. The evening emphasized Watts’ original compositions.
Early in the concert, Watts spoke about the difference between a bunch of good musicians who get together and play some tunes and a band. “The Baby,” Marc Seales (piano) has played with Watts for a decade. Bassist Bruce Lett has played in the quartet for twice that long, and Bob Leatherbarrow (drums) has played with Ernie Watts for thirty years. So, yes, this was an established musical group… a band. They know each other well, they understand each others’ personal styles, and they play off each other in a dynamic way.
The Tunes
The concert opened with “Acceptance,” from Watts’ 2014 album, A Simple Truth. The song alternates between interludes played in a fast six and longer sections played in a straight-ahead swing. The interludes featured angular sax lines that harmonized with a bass pattern, which was, in turn, doubled by the piano.The second tune, “O.P.” was written by Sam Jones, bassist and composer for such household names as Cannonball Adderly, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Burrell, Thelonius Monk, Freddy Hubbard, and Bill Evans. Jones’ musical mentor was Oscar Pettiford, and this song is named “O.P.” in Pettiford’s honor.
The quartet approached this number as a swing with a sweet, relaxed feel. Watts doubled the bass for the melody. As you’d expect, bassist Bruce Lett took a good ride on this one.
Song number three, “Freaky Fliers,” was inspired by the “free music” of Ornette Coleman and the “free jazz” work of Charlie Haden. It was a very active, very up-tempo piece featuring a four-note figure that Watts sliced and diced, varying dynamics, tonality and tempo. The song slipped in and out of a swing feel. If Igor Stravinsky had played jazz, it might sound like this.
Next came “Letter from Home,” from the Quartet’s 2016 album, Wheel of Time. This song had a great Latin, almost calypso vibe and was built on strong rhythmic interplay between drums (Leatherbarrow) and bass (Lett). Like so many of the songs, this one was simultaneously driving and laid back. Watts referred to it as “a groove,” but it felt deeper than that — more like a crack in the Cosmic Egg than a mere groove.
Watts referred to the fifth tune, “Through the Veil” as “fusion.” He also called it an “East-West mix,” and given the prevalence of harmonic minor scale fragments in much of the solo work, it certainly felt that way. Watts deployed the standard, “Nature Boy,” during his intro, but most of the song consisted of swing sections contrasted with rubato breaks.
The final song of the evening was “Home Light,” the title track of Watt’s 2018 album. This song had a beautiful gospel feel, with a strong, relaxed tempo. Leatherbarrow’s drum work was front and center in this one. The tune had audience members calling “Yeah!” It was a lovely, musical farewell that brought a fine concert to a close.
The Musicians
About Ernie Watts (http://erniewatts.com)
Ernie Watts is a two-time Grammy winner. His trademark tenor work has been featured on a huge collection of recordings. He’s been playing saxophone for over sixty years, and his body of work, both album credits and compositions, makes him one of the most versatile and prolific artists alive today.
In 2004, after 15 albums as a leader, Watts started Flying Dolphin Records, in partnership with his wife Patricia. Flying Dolphin (distributed by City Hall Records in the US and Laika Records in Germany) is a new chapter for the artist's creative expression. After all his years of studio work and playing in every kind of musical setting, he reached a place in his life where he needed to make music on his own terms. Starting his own label provided a new sense of freedom.
Flying Dolphin's first release ALIVE (2004) was recorded live at the Backstage in Fulda, Germany. The chance to hear Watts at immediate heat in the midst of his own music had only been available before to his concert audiences. To The Point and ALIVE both vividly capture that live experience.
For more information about Ernie Watts, please see his biography (http://erniewatts.com/biography.html)
About Marc Seales (https://music.washington.edu/people/marc-seales)
Marc Seales is an American jazz pianist associated with the post-bop genre. He is a Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of Washington in Seattle. In addition to his work with Ernie Watts, Seales has played with Benny Carter, Howard Roberts, Bobby Hutcherson and Art Pepper. His work as a band leader includes New Stories and the Marc Seales Quartet. In 1999, he won the Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award for Best Instrumentalist. His song 'Highway Blues’ was included by default in Windows XP.
A noted pianist, composer and leading figure in the Northwest jazz scene, Seales has shared stages with many of the great players of the last two decades. He has played with such luminaries as Joe Henderson and Art Pepper to Benny Carter, Mark Murphy, and Bobby Hutcherson and has performed in London, England; Kobe, Japan; The Hague in the Netherlands; and the North Sea Jazz Festival.
The musicians he admires most are Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, John Lewis, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Wynton Kelly, though he is quick to acknowledge that he owes the basically be-bop/post be-bop sound of his playing to his mentors, Don Lanphere and Floyd Standifer.
About Bruce Lett (https://web.csulb.edu/depts/music/areas/jazz-studies/bruce-lett.php)
Bassist Bruce Lett attended the University of Evansville, Indiana and North Texas State University. He has toured with Gerry Mulligan, Alphonse Mouzon, Nancy Wilson, and Ernie Watts. Lett has played at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Playboy Jazz Festival, and the Cancun Jazz Festival. He’s an active LA studio musician with credits in television soundtracks, commercials, and theme music. He is on the music faculty in jazz studies at Long Beach State.
Lett has been involved in commercials, television soundtracks and industrial films. He is an active studio musician, recording for television series such as Moonlighting and Beverly Hills 90210. He has recorded theme and bumper music for Fox, After Breakfast, source music for the movie Dear God and for the TV mini series Titanic. Commercial credits include Ivory Soap, Quasar, Coca Cola, Sports Illustrated, Jack in the Box, Pepsi, Aloha Airlines, and more. His television soundtracks and Industrial films include American Airlines, Miller Beer, Navy Archives, US Marine Corps, California Radio Network, the PBS children’s show, Wasted, and others.
About Bob Leatherbarrow (https://bobleatherbarrow.com)
Bob Leatherbarrow studied the drums with Charlie Lorigo, orchestral percussion with John Rowland of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the vibraphone with Dave Samuels. He attended the Berklee College of Music.
Leatherbarrow has played with Ernie Watts, Norah Jones, Joe Farrell, Peggy Lee, Victor Feldman, Horace Silver, Doc Severinsen, Howard Roberts, John Klemmer, Jack Sheldon, Rosemary Clooney, Natalie Cole, and many others.
His vibraphone work can be heard on recordings by Stanley Clarke, Nelly Furtado, Chantal Kreviazuk, Bill Perkins, Lorraine Feather, and Greta Matassa. He was Peggy Lee's vibraphone player for years. He plays vibes and composes for his group Polychrome which he formed with Sam Riney and John Chiodini.
Copyright © 2020, Michael C. Glaviano. All rights reserved.