Charlie Watts’ Jazz Catalog Gets A Retrospective ‘Anthology’ With Notes By Paul Sexton

[Cover photo credit to Anton Corbijn]

The first extensive anthology from the Jazz catalog of all-star drummer Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones has been released. Available both in double vinyl and double CD editions, Anthology displays the “other” musical identity of Watts. It draws on an almost 20-year period in his substantial catalog of Jazz recordings, including quartet, quintet, tentet, and orchestra.

Across Anthology, collaborators include his lifelong friend and double bass player Dave Green, saxophonists such as Peter King, Evan Parker and Courtney Pine, trumpeter Gerard Presencer, fellow drummer Jim Keltner and vocalist and Rolling Stones live band member Bernard Fowler. 

The retrospective begins in 1986, when Watts had his own name on an album for the first time on Live At Fulham Town Hall. It then features selections from the Charlie Watts Quintet’s 1991 mini-album From One Charlie, their albums A Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings (1992), Warm and Tender (1993) and Long Ago and Far Away (1996), the 2000 collaboration Charlie Watts – Jim Keltner Project and another live set, 2004’s Watts at Scott’s, as the Charlie Watts Tentet. 

The expanded CD track listing is further enhanced by the inclusion of three tracks from a performance by Watts and his group at Swindon Arts Centre, featuring versions of “Rockhouse Boogie,” “Ain’t Nobody Minding Your Store,” and “Swindon Swing.”

Anthology features liner notes by music journalist and broadcaster Paul Sexton, the author of Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts, published by HarperCollins.  

LP TRACKLISTING

LP 1 

SIDE 1:

1. Stompin’ At The Savoy
2. Flying Home
3. Practising, Practising, Just Great
4. Relaxing At Camarillo

SIDE 2:

1. Blackbird – White Chicks
2. Cool Blues 
3. You Go To My Head
4. If I Should Lose You
5. My Ship

LP 2 

SIDE 3:

1. Long Ago (And Far Away)
2. Good Morning Heartache 
3. Never Let Me Go
4. Roy Haynes (Reprise)
5. Airto

SIDE 4

1. Roll ‘Em Charlie
2. What’s New 
3. Take The “A” Train 

CD TRACKLISTING

CD 1

1. Stompin’ At The Savoy
2. Flying Home
3. Practising, Practising, Just Great
4. Relaxing At Camarillo
5. Blackbird – White Chicks
6. Cool Blues 
7. You Go To My Head
8. If I Should Lose You
9. My Ship
10. Long Ago (And Far Away)
11. Good Morning Heartache 
12. Never Let Me Go

CD 2

1. Roy Haynes
2. Airto
3. Roll ‘Em Charlie
4. What’s New 
5. Tin Tin Deo 
6. Sunset and The Mockingbird 
7. Take the “A” Train 
8. Rockhouse Boogie (Previously Unreleased)
9. Ain’t Nobody Minding Your Store (Previously Unreleased)
10. Swindon Swing (Previously Unreleased)