BOBBY WATSON
Quiet As It's Kept (Red)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Bobby Watson is among the most underrated players in contemporary jazz. He took up the hard bop banner a few years before the "Young Lions" revival scene caught the public attention, and he's been doing a bit of catch up every since. Though he's achieved his share of critical acclaim, there are more than a few less talented players who have achieved higher public renown and esteem. Signed for a time to a major US label, some of his best work has been for smaller, often European labels. Principle among those has been the Italian label, Red Records. Quiet As It's Kept finds Watson back on Red, and it's time that quiet subsided and people started making a lot more noise about Bobby Watson.

This might be the album that does it. The slow ballads and medium tempo pieces that he's composed or assembled (6 of the tracks are Watson originals) display his considerable improvisational ability, but several could catch the attention of "smooth jazz" programmers, if they're willing to overlook the fact that Watson can move off the page and play real jazz in real time. I know the hard core aficionado thinks that "smooth jazz" airplay is some kind of awful, but Watson deserves the sales that only that kind of exposure seems to produce these days. And the lucky purchaser is going to find more real jazz among these 11 cuts than he'll typically hear in a month of Boney and Kenny and whoever else they're pushing this week.

Of course, if you're a true jazz fan, and you want to spare Bobby Watson the indignity of achieving mainstream popularity while still meeting his mortgage payments, you can always search this one out and buy it yourself. You'll be glad you did, and so will he.

Track List:

Looking In Your Eyes * Always A Friend * Afternoon In Ottobrun * Just For Today * Back Home Again With You * Watch The Children Play * Quiet As It's Kept * Nubian Breakdown * Nanatsu-No-Ko * Concentric Circles * Interlude (To Be Continued...)

© 2000 - Shaun Dale