{"id":26497,"date":"2021-08-24T02:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T02:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=26497"},"modified":"2021-08-26T09:25:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T09:25:53","slug":"how-rolling-stones-drummer-charlie-watts-infused-one-of-the-greatest-rock-n-roll-bands-with-a-little-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-rolling-stones-drummer-charlie-watts-infused-one-of-the-greatest-rock-n-roll-bands-with-a-little-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts infused one of the greatest rock \u2018n\u2019 roll bands with a little jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victor Coelho<\/a>, Boston University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an era when rock drummers were larger-than-life showmen with big kits and egos to match, Charlie Watts remained the quiet man behind a modest drum set. But Watts wasn\u2019t your typical rock drummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the Rolling Stones setup from 1963 until his death on Aug. 24, 2021<\/a>, Watts provided the back-beat to their greatest hits by injecting jazz sensibilities \u2013 and swing \u2013 into the Stones\u2019 sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a musicologist<\/a> and co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones<\/a> \u2013 as well as a fan who has seen the Stones live more than 20 times over the past five decades \u2013 I see Watts as being integral to the band\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Ringo Starr<\/a> and other drummers who emerged during the 1960s British pop explosion, Watts was influenced by the swing and big band sound that was hugely popular in the U.K.<\/a> in the 1940s and 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modest with the sticks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Watts wasn\u2019t formally trained as a jazz drummer, but jazz musicians like Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk were early influences<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 2012 interview with the New Yorker, he recalled how their records informed his playing style<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI bought a banjo, and I didn\u2019t like the dots on the neck,\u201d Watts said. \u201cSo I took the neck off, and at the same time I heard a drummer called Chico Hamilton, who played with Gerry Mulligan, and I wanted to play like that, with brushes. I didn\u2019t have a snare drum, so I put the banjo head on a stand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts\u2019 first group, the Jo Jones All Stars, were a jazz band. And elements of jazz remained throughout his Stones career, providing Watts with a wide stylistic versatility that was critical to the Stones\u2019 forays beyond blues and rock to country, reggae, disco, funk and even punk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a modesty in his playing that came from his jazz learning. There are no big rock drum solos. He made sure the attention was never on him or his drumming \u2013 his role was keeping the songs going forward, giving them movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also didn\u2019t use a big kit \u2013 no gongs, no scaffolding. He kept a modest one<\/a> more typically found in jazz quartets and quintets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, Watts\u2019 occasional use of brushes over sticks \u2013 such as in \u201cMelody\u201d from 1976\u2019s \u201cBlack and Blue\u201d \u2013 more explicitly shows his debt to jazz drummers. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/th4zycplGK4?wmode=transparent&start=0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he didn\u2019t come in with one style. Watts was trained to adapt, while keeping elements of jazz. You can hear it in the R’n\u2019 B of \u201c(I can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction<\/a>,\u201d to the infernal samba-like rhythm of \u201cSympathy For The Devil<\/a>\u201d \u2013 two songs in which Watts\u2019 contribution is central.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a song like \u201cCan\u2019t You Hear Me Knocking<\/a>\u201d from 1971\u2019s \u201cSticky Fingers\u201d develops from one of Keith Richards\u2019 highest caliber riffs into a long concluding instrumental section, unique in the Stones\u2019 song catalog, of Santana-esque Latin jazz, containing some great syncopated rhythmic shots and tasteful hi-hat playing through which Watts drives the different musical sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You hear similar elements in \u201cGimme Shelter<\/a>\u201d and other classic Rolling Stones songs \u2013 it is perfectly placed drum fills and gestures that make the song and surprise you, always in the background and never dominating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powering the \u2018engine room\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So central was Watts to the Stones that when bassist Bill Wyman retired from the band after the 1989 \u201cSteel Wheels\u201d tour, it was Watts who was tasked with picking his replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He needed a bass player that would fit his style. But his choice of Darryl Jones as Wyman\u2019s replacement was not the only key partnership for Watts. He played off the beat, complementing Richards\u2019 very syncopated, riff-driven guitar style. Watts and Richards set the groove for so many Stones songs, such as \u201cHonky Tonk Women\u201d or \u201cStart Me Up.\u201d If you watched them live, you\u2019d notice Richards looking at Watts at all times \u2013 his eyes fixated on the drummer, searching for where the musical accents are, and matching their rhythmic \u201cshots\u201d and off-beats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts did not aspire to be a virtuoso like John Bonham of Led Zeppelin<\/a> or The Who\u2019s Keith Moon<\/a> \u2013 there was no drumming excess. From that initial jazz training, he kept his distance from outward gestures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for nearly six decades, he was the main occupant, as Richards put it, of the Rolling Stones\u2019 legendary \u201cengine room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Like what you\u2019ve read? Want more?<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s daily newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor Coelho<\/a>, Professor of Music, Boston University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Coelho, Boston University In an era when rock drummers were larger-than-life showmen with big kits and egos to match, Charlie Watts remained the quiet man behind a modest drum set. But Watts wasn\u2019t your typical rock drummer. Part of the Rolling Stones setup from 1963 until his death on Aug. 24, 2021, Watts provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[2192,53,4523,10380,1426,5354],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26499,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497\/revisions\/26499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}