Courtesy of Jeff "Tain" Watts






Columbia

A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JEFF "TAIN" WATTS


I look forward to seeing Tain at Catalina's next week. Catalina's is not the fairest of them all, but I will make the drive to see Tain. See, I've been a Tain aficionado since I first saw him with Branford a decade ago. I thought he was one of the best drummers I had ever seen at the time, and my impression has only grown fonder as the years have passed. Along with Han Bennink (because he can get more sounds out of a snare drum than most drummers can exhaust from a five-piece set), Hamid Drake (because he is the bitch's bastard live and just as good, if not better on record), Dennis Chambers (because he plays such loud, prolonged solos), and Tony Oxley (because understated elegance is a cure for the common jazz cold), Tain is the only drummer I will go see live. I am not a fan of piano trios. Unless it's Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, or Misha Mengelberg, I tend to avoid them. When I was living in New York, Tain had just released his Columbia debut, Citizen Tain and in an effort to promote or support the album, the label had Tain playing a week at the old Jazz Standard with his quartet. A three course meal had passed and Tain's quartet was still a trio (Craig Handy had some traffic issues), but I was transfixed on Tain and never once felt the urge to excuse myself from the building citing an early call the next day. I stayed for both sets (Handy eventually got there midst the second set) and credit goes to Tain. He is a bad ass. I urge you to see him live. He is just that good. I am pleased to give you the man that helped make Branford and Brecker look good all these years, unedited and in his own words.


FRED JUNG: Having been around for a couple of decades, seems odd to be referring to your major label debut (Citizen Tain).

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Oh, it's cool, Fred. It's music that I had done a little while ago. It's some of the first music that I had written. I'm happy about it. Just from the standpoint that I was able to have some late stuff with Kenny Kirkland playing and it's worth it for "The Impaler." It's worth it to me just to have Wynton and Branford and Kenny playing. That's really cool. But I'm at peace with it. It's fine.


FJ: During the four years between Citizen Tain and your latest for Columbia, Bar Talk, the label put out ten plus Wynton records. You're like Springsteen.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Yeah, I guess so. That record came out in '99. I guess there was stuff going on. Just within Branford's thing, I mean, nobody's going to talk about it pretty much, but there was just like a little upheaval, like when Kenny passed, so we had to readjust to that and get the band straight so we could just keep doing what we're doing. There was a certain amount of reflection too. I don't know, Fred. I tried to sell the first record and then there's also the stuff within the label. It's gone through a big realignment of some sort, Legacy (reissue arm of Columbia) stepping up to distribute the new Columbia jazz records.


FJ: Any side effects?

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Not really because I don't really know about the business to foresee how it could affect me. It's something. I don't know. Just the nature of what happened, it is different, but the fact that I'm still there. I was just talking to the other guy about this. Yeah, it is good that I am still on the label and stuff, just to be able to record at all, but also, the fact that Branford was the A&R man that signed me to the label and he's no longer there. But the fact that they're dealing with me, I assume on my own terms, that's probably positive. Other people have told me that the Legacy department is a better distributing, larger, more well functioning department to put records out on as opposed to what they had before. They have a bigger staff and it's really together, so I don't know.


FJ: Bar Talk mirrors the Citizen Tain model of guest artists. Pros and cons being you don't fall victim to boredom, but flipside to the coin, lacks the cohesiveness of a working band.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Oh, no, no. I don't know. I'll tell you, Fred. I planned on just recording the band. Actually, the architecture is probably more like I did the first record and it's a certain sound and the second record, most, I mean, those cuts, the stuff with Ravi Coltrane, that's pretty much representative of a working band that I've been dealing with for like a couple years. But then, ultimately, my plan was for my third record to try to do a live record with my band to really introduce the band and the band sound.


FJ: Who's in the band?

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: I've worked with the band like the group that's on "Stevie in Rio." Like I've done a lot of gigs with James Genus (bass), Paul Bollenback (guitar), David Budway (piano), and Ravi Coltrane (saxophones). They've done the bulk of the gigs, but also Craig Handy was in the band and Steve Wilson has done some quartet gigs with me. Right now, John Benitez, he's pretty much the bass player in the band. I usually use James or Eric Revis or him. We're trying to do something with him now. Ravi has done the bulk of the gigs. Lately, I've started to use this guy, Marcus Strickland that just got out of the New School. He's been working with Roy Haynes in the last eight months. He's just somebody. I've known him for a couple years.


FJ: Good tone on the tenor.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: You like him right?


FJ: Nice pace to his playing.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: He's a strong guy and he knows all my music. He knew it all before. I was doing a gig at the Zinc Bar (90 West Houston Street) and he came down there and we were just hanging and talking and stuff like that. But he knew "In the Crease" from Branford's record (Contemporary Jazz) before it came out. Eric was playing bass on the gig and he was like, "Let's play 'In the Crease.'" And he just started playing it and soloing on it. It's not easy. He's on it.


FJ: How long was your regular gig at the Zinc? I remember walking over from the Blue Note to see you when I was living in New York.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: OK, I started messing with it probably around '97 doing those Mondays, but in the past, I'd say the past year and a half, I haven't done it much. Like this year, I've done it twice, maybe three times. I have an association with it and it's cool.


FJ: You tip your hat to two icons, John Coltrane and Billy Higgins, on Bar Talk.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: (Laughing) OK, John Coltrane is, I am I will coin the term "Trane-iac" for the first time. I am a "Trane-iac." I just love him. I love Trane. It is like a complete thing, philosophically, musically. It is just a vibe, a vibe. It is so organic, I don't even want to describe it anymore. It's a gift. That tune, "JC is the Man," of course, it can be for your own personal JC or it can be Jesus Christ or it could be John Coltrane, but it is actually this bartender that used to work at the Zinc Bar. That's his voice on there and shit like that and that's what it's about. It's about him. I would come in there and he go, "Tain, you are the man. You're the man," and I'd say, "No, you are the man, JC's the man," and it just kind of turned into a song. I told him that I was going to make a song out of that shit and he was like, "No, man." It is very much a sketch. If I'd show you the chart, you would just laugh because it is like nothing there. It would look like a seven-year-old made it or something. It is just nothing there and I tried to just write it and brought it to the band. I was like, "What chord is this? B flat?" And I was like, "I don't care." (Laughing) And then we just started playing it and it's funny. It's funny. I wasn't sure if I was actually going to record it, but then I recorded it. We just did like one long take and then I cut it in half and so I've got this part one and part two.

Hig is very, very cool. Hig was, I am talking in the present tense just because I do that sometimes. He was like consistently sweet and cool to me all through the years and I have to say that about pretty much, most all the great drummers. There is some drummers coming up now that couldn't take advantage of being able to go down to the Vanguard and see Ed Blackwell play for a week or go see Eddie Moore or go see a bunch of cats, a bunch of cats. Go see Johnny Griffin with different cats or Steve McCall or something. But he was around then and he was always sweet and then while I was doing the television show and I was living in LA and going to the World Stage once and a while and just seeing him out in the neighborhood and teaching kids and having a whole bunch of kids playing African drums and just like dealing with it, but doing it humbly and just as part of the crew just up in there. It is some stuff. Only a fool would construe it to be negative, but in the summertime, they would have music festivals down there and he would be out there. He'd be out there with like short sleeve shirt and shorts and stuff like that and just rolling around and he's got marks on him. He's got his tracks from when he was using and stuff like that, pretty severe. He'd be like, "Yeah, Watts, I come out here in my shorts and then these kids can see what the stuff can do to you." That's great. He's a great man because he's so cool. The coolness is the key. He's a great man.


FJ: You have a tendency to mad dog an audience member during your performance.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Yeah. Yeah, sometimes I am looking at something or sometimes I'm just looking and I'm not really saying anything. I'm just trying to get to where I'm really reacting and not really thinking of stuff like that. I just want to feel it. I'll tell you, Fred, who did I say this to? It was like the first or second time I met Don Alias and we were both doing something and I just definitely had the statement of a younger mind, but I saw him and he was on Night Music (NBC television program) with Sanborn and they had the camera on him and they were playing some grooves. He had just a little shaker and he was just shaking it like it was the last shaker on earth. That's what I told him, that I had saw him and he was shaking that thing like it was the baddest shit in the world and he was like, "Yeah, that's right. I was." (Laughing) It was just the way he said it. And that is the way I feel. It is a little, simple part, but it's got to feel really good and you mean it.


FJ: What other projects do you have your hand in?

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Outside of my own, I am still in the Branford Marsalis quartet. I'm still somehow in the Michael Brecker quartet, although he's been doing all these projects and last year, it seemed like he had three or four bands, but I'm still in his quartet. We're going to Japan and the Far East in late October. I think Randy's (Brecker) going to play also. Those bands and I have little relationships with people. I'll do stuff with Calderazzo and his trio and Eric Revis is starting to develop his music and stuff like that and so he has some projects that are coming up. I'm working at the Zinc Bar tonight and tomorrow with this group. I've done it off and on for the last four or five years. It's some different music. It's definitely African based with a lot of jazz harmony. I will do stuff with Conrad Herwig or David Kikoski or Claudia Acuna, just anybody, Fort Apache on a given day will call and I'll go and mess it up (laughing). I'll just go and play it and have fun.


FJ: Having been in Branford's inner circle, you've first-hand witnessed the pros and cons of the industry.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: I got some. Yeah, yeah. Good and bad is relative. I guess the financial thing, I've been for fortunate than most. The industry is wild, but business is corrupt in general. It is all, I don't know what to feel. It doesn't make me feel jaded, I guess, because things could be a lot worse, especially for me. I could be doing fries or something, so it's cool. I've seen people make stupid paper for nothing and I've seen people never get a chance to be heard and it translates. Things could easily be a lot worse for me, so it's cool.


FJ: Tour dates?

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: Yeah, so far the release date is August 6 and we'll start in Chicago at the Jazz Showcase and play like Yoshi's and the West Coast clubs like Catalina's and go from there. Hit the East Coast and do all the favorites, Blues Alley and stuff like that. I toured for the last record, but my management is a lot more together now, so it will be cohesive stuff. I'll play anywhere. I just want to play. I don't care if it's grassroots. I just want to put the music out there and just bounce it off people.


FJ: Don't you miss the sense of home?

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: (Laughing) I've never been asked that before. Sometimes I will be home and I'll wake up and I had been on the road so much that when I got home woke up and I was watching TV and flicking through the channels and every channel was in English and it was jarring. I'm used to turning on the TV and trying to find the two stations that have English on them. You look at the clock and try to figure out the time of home and you are at home. It is a little strange, especially now with the state of the world and airport security. I guess I'm used to it and I need to be used to it because I'm still going to do a lot of my sideman stuff, but I told my people just to book. I will run myself ragged just to put my band out there.


FJ: A leader has the burden of band. Being a sideman is easier.

JEFF "TAIN" WATTS: I like being a sideman. It's fun because I get to do it with my friends and people that are cool. I haven't done enough stuff as a leader to even see it. Actually, even when I'm a leader, other than making sure that everybody's taken care of, that's stuff that I've had to do on my own and it was cool. Now that I have management, that will be out of the way. I just like it when people get the music and we just play. Whatever it takes to get a sound. That is all I'm going for, just to get that feeling, to get a feeling when the music is vibrating and it just plays itself. That's all I want. I'm a happy person. It's cool. Everything seems to happen when it is supposed to happen. I'm just trying to get organized and be clear and be in a frame of mind where I can take in all the things that are about the happen and interpret them and get in that flow of having control over your own personal musical world. I just saw Dave Holland and he was in Downbeat a year and a half ago and they were talking to him and he talked about that he wrote the music and he recorded it, but then you play it on gigs and then you really learn how to play it and that effects how he writes the next tune and it is like a circle. I'm looking forward to that. I'm trying.

Fred Jung is the Editor-In-Chief and it's in the game. Comments? Email Him