Charlie Watts wasn’t the primary Stone to go solo – that honour goes to Invoice Wyman in 1975. However, two years later, in an occasion that appears to have gone largely unrecorded in Stones folklore, Watts discovered himself in entrance of 200 punters on the Swindon Arts Centre, taking part in blues and jazz requirements with a band that includes the native boogie-woogie pianist and singer Bob Corridor. “It is a one-off factor,” Watts informed the Swindon Advertiser on the time. “I’ve by no means actually performed with this kind of band earlier than, though I used to play with bluesmen like Alexis Korner within the early days.”

It was, in hindsight, one thing of a clue for the way Watts’ solo profession would develop. Beforehand unreleased, three tracks from that Swindon session type the climax of this mammoth overview of Watts’ extracurricular work. He’s joined by outdated associates: Ian Stewart, the hidden sixth Stone, is on piano, whereas the bassist Dave Inexperienced, a childhood pal and neighbour from the Wembley prefabs the place Watts was raised, is on bass (as he’s on most of Watts’ jazz releases over the following 4 many years). It’s a captivating session – a waystation between the rock’n’roll of his day job and the big-band swing that Watts beloved. There’s a rumbling Louis Jordan-style model of John Lee Hooker’s “Rockhouse Boogie”, with a three-piece horn part; a reasonably daft 12-bar blues sung by Bob Corridor; and an impromptu piece of jump-blues written by the trumpeter Colin Smith referred to as “Swindon Swing” (one which Watts additionally recorded on a tour of Europe with a band referred to as Rocket 88, that includes a number of members of this Swindon lineup).

A dedication to the Stones’ touring and recording schedule prevented Watts from making extra music like this. However in 1985, with Mick Jagger selling his debut solo album She’s The Boss, Watts took benefit of a furlough to type the Charlie Watts Orchestra. He enlisted one in all his heroes, the Charlie Parker-inspired British alto saxophonist Peter King, to assemble a 30-piece large band that blended well-established London beboppers (the likes of Stan Tracey, Bobby Wellins and Alan Skidmore) with extra experimental veterans (Evan Parker, Harry Beckett, Dave Defries) and the cream of younger London gamers (Courtney Pine, Annie Whitehead, Ted Emmett, Steve Sidwell, Gail Thompson).

The extracts from their 1986 debut album Reside At Fulham City Corridor are splendidly chaotic and rambunctious recordings. The 2 tracks that open the album, the Benny Goodman band favourites “Stompin’ At The Savoy” and “Flying Residence”, begin as hard-driving big-band swingers, edge into jump-jive territory, and ultimately morph into Mingus-style orchestral freakouts. Watts isn’t the one drummer right here – he’s flanked by the free-jazzer John Stevens and the old-school bebop veteran Invoice Eyden – however the drums are very low within the combine: Watts is joyful to only stoke the hearth.

In 1960, whereas working as a graphic designer, Watts created a scrappy self-made image e book referred to as Ode To A Excessive Flying Hen, together with his cartoons and handwritten textual content telling the story of Charlie Parker (“a tribute, from one Charlie to a different”). London’s Beat Publications cashed in by publishing it in 1965, nevertheless it wasn’t till 1991 that Watts turned this providing right into a musical mission. From One Charlie is represented right here by 5 tracks, all recorded with a decent Parker-style quintet: Watts, Inexperienced and King are joined by pianist Brian Lemon and the prodigious teenage trumpeter Gerard Presencer. There are two Parker covers – a sinuous blues referred to as “Stress-free At Camarillo” (probably the most cheerful tune about being confined to a psychological establishment you’ll ever hear) and “Bluebird” (one other blues, with a stunning Presencer taking part in the Miles Davis position). However it’s Peter King who dominates the present, writing all the opposite tracks on the album within the Hen fashion, together with “Practising, Practising, Simply Nice” (which begins with a three-minute alto solo), the languid blues “Going, Going, Going, Gone”, and the uptempo “Blackbird, White Chicks”.

Additionally recorded in 1991 – with Watts benefiting from one other Stones furlough – is a stay set from Ronnie Scott’s short-lived Birmingham franchise. A Tribute To Charlie Parker With Strings sees the quintet joined by a string sextet (who play some sensational, angular harmonies) and New Yorker Bernard Fowler. Fowler is finest referred to as a backing singer for the Stones in addition to artists as numerous as Herbie Hancock, Gil Scott Heron, Sly & Robbie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, however he makes a exceptional, soulful jazz frontman, his androgynous tone stealing the present on variations of “Lover Man” and “If I Ought to Lose You”.

Watts’ most experimental album by far is his 2000 collaboration with Jim Keltner, an electro-acoustic mission the place all 9 tracks have been devoted to the pair’s drumming heroes. It’s represented by two tracks right here – the closely synthesised digi-funk of “Roy Haynes” and the dreamy Brazilian samba “Airto”, that includes the multi-tracked voices and keyboards of Emmanuel Sourdeix and Philippe Chauveau.

There’s one more Watts lineup featured right here, from 2004’s Watts At Scott’s, with Watts and King assembling a 10-piece with one other superb cross-section of the UK jazz scene, together with avant-gardist Evan Parker, Unfastened Tuber Julian Arguelles and vibraphonist Anthony Kerr. Portugal’s Luis Jardim, a mainstay of the London session scene on the time, assists on percussion, serving to Watts to maneuver in an Afro-Cuban path on Dizzy Gillespie’s Cubop commonplace “Tin Tin Deo”, and including fireplace to a few Duke Ellington favourites. As ever, Watts does nothing flashy – he’s content material to pay attention rigorously, play what’s wanted, swing arduous and make his extraordinary band sound nearly as good as they are often.