Jeff "Tain" Watts
NO "TAIN," NO GAIN
Jeff "Tain" Watts Sheds the Marsalis Shadow with the High-Voltage CITIZEN TAIN
Drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts has a nickname that fits him to a, well, T. Short for "mountain" -- legend has it a bandmate compared Watts's high voltage style to a peak looming on the horizon -- "Tain" is indeed a sizable talent. Night after night, on bandstands around the world, the 37-year-old Watts has become synonymous with a rock-solid yet volcanic percussion approach.
One of the most robust improvisers in modern jazz, he's been a key member of the Marsalis camp for more than 15 years - - it was Wynton's 1983 disc, THINK OF ONE, that brought the drummer's brawn and finesse to a national audience. These days, Watts keeps Branford Marsalis's bands splitting the difference between freedom and swing, an approach he's been honing with the saxophonist for more than a decade. CITIZEN TAIN, his major label debut as a leader, is punchy and precise, full of the rugged hard bop and meaty blues motifs he likes to bend into submission. Featuring Kirkland, and the first dual appearance of Wynton and Branford in close to a decade, CITIZEN TAIN gives notice that Watts has plenty to say when he's calling the shots. The monster drummer spoke to barnesandnoble.com's Jim Macnie about the big beat and other things percussive.
barnesandnoble.com: A sideman becomes leader. Have you been waiting for the chance?
Jeff "Tain" Watts: Yeah, it's time. It feels a bit bizarre, but I can't wait to see what people think.
bn: Have you always been as physical a drummer as you are now?
JTW: I think so, yeah. The physical side has always been there. At 23, I had recorded Wynton's THINK OF ONE and Branford's SCENES IN THE CITY, and that whole physical thing was in place. But these days I've been trying to get to a more...I don't want to say cerebral, because that sounds too heavy, but a deeper thing. Creating a personal language for me and the guys I play with.
bn: Was practicing a more aggressive kind of swing part of the agenda back then?
JTW: Well, back then, Wynton probably felt that the jazz ball had been dropped a bit, or delayed by the music of the day - - you know, how he felt about the avant garde and fusion. So it seemed we were checking Trane's music, Ornette's stuff. Picking up on a time line really. Basically it's all hard- hitting music. Before I moved to New York, I'd been playing a lot of fusion and rock-oriented stuff.
bn: Were bosses telling you to tone it down back then?
JTW: It's only been recently that a bunch of different people have been hiring me for gigs, and they know what they want going in. If they would have hired back then, they might have said something in order to preserve their music. These days I try to tailor the moves to the full service of the music at hand.
bn: Which of the really physical jazz drummers had it all?
JTW: In a physical sense, easily Tony Williams. Billy Cobham, too, back in the day. Several years ago, there was a double bill at the Blue Note - - those two together. Tony with Wallace Roney and those guys. Cobham in a trio with Wayne Krantz. So I called a bunch of drummers - - Troy Davis, Gene Jackson, Cecil Brooks, just a big pile of drummers. I said "Man, let's get a bad table and check this stuff out!" Tony really went out of his way to do the job that night. It was great. He could kick, right?
bn: Over the years you've found a way to be powerful and intricate simultaneously?
JTW: In the past, I would blast for a whole tune. Now I'm looking for the optimum spot. Like Roy Haynes. He'll play all night and ignore a certain cymbal. Then, when it's perfect, he'll touch it. That's really deep. I'm trying to learn about triggering feelings.
bn: Someone I've always been confused about is Buddy Rich. Great percussionist or great showman?
JTW: No, he's heavy. It's not just tricks. I haven't gotten too much from him vocabulary-wise, but he was a great technician who put together stuff from a lot of cats of the day: Chick Webb, Sid Catlett. I find I enjoy him more when I don't know it's him, and I can listen honestly. Usually I think, "Wow, this guy's swinging."
bn: Do you agree with the old saying that you can get away with a couple mediocre instrumentalists in a band, but if the drummer's not on, the whole thing's worthless? Does all the action start from the traps?
JTW: It tends too. These days, because everybody's drum-oriented, that's true. Right now the beat determines what a song is in popular music, much more so than a melody. And in jazz, people are really focusing on the drums.
bn: Something that's amazing to me is the fact I still hear people filing Branford's music under neoconservative. What are they not hearing?
JTW: I really don't know. I still get a little of that myself. I don't know what slot we're supposed to be in. People don't listen, that's one thing. Labels are just for people to know where to find stuff. In general, I don't believe in liner notes getting too specific or hearing people describing other people's music in terms of what to listen for.
bn: You guys used hard bop as a bedrock for freer notions. The way you swing in that band is wide open.
JTW: That's about right. I'm playing time, but I'm trying to deal with textures as well. Trying to build a bridge between them actually. My concept is to weave time work into the avant garde stuff a bit. Control it, so the free stuff has a definable motion; I don't want it to sit in one place. There's so much stuff to do with the drums.
bn: You guys call your wilder pieces "burn out" tunes. How do you define those?
JTW: An easy formula would combine the intensity of John Coltrane's band and the propensity for taking liberties with harmony the way Ornette Coleman did. Then mix in the rhythmic complexity of Miles's '60s group. Then factor in the notion that you just don't care. It's all about not being pretty. Kenny Kirkland dropped the word about it on us. You burn the stuff out, get to a certain feeling where the music starts to hum - - a nice groove, the Holy Ghost, something heavy like that.
bn: It's refreshing to find that there are no standards on CITIZEN TAIN.
JTW: Yeah, I like the fact that it's mine. And hopefully the music is hearable, easy to latch onto melodically. There's a lot of tricks we could have put on there to spice it up or confuse people, but I just wanted strong songs for the first record. Like "Mufkin Man." Thelonious Monk's piano style has a lot to do with the way I play drums. There always a serious reason for what he plays. Lotta logic in his accompaniment. That's what I'm shooting for.
© 2009 All Media Guide, LLC