Bobby Watson’S New Album, Made in America, Celebrates Unheralded African American Heroes
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34 DOWNBEAT JULY 2017 Bobby Watson’s new album, Made In America, celebrates unheralded African American heroes. WHEN A COMPOSER WRITES A PIECE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND GIVES IT A TITLE, IS THERE ANYTHING INHERENT IN THE CHARACTER OF THE MUSIC THAT DEMANDS SUCH A TITLE? OR WOULD ANOTHER TITLE WORK JUST AS WELL? IF, FOR EXAMPLE, ONE CHURNING, DISSONANT, UPTEMPO NUMBER IS NAMED AFTER AN EX-SPOUSE AND ANOTHER IS NAMED AFTER A CORRUPT POLITICIAN, CAN WE HEAR ANYTHING IN THE MUSIC THAT LETS US KNOW WHICH IS WHICH? As Bobby Watson worked on an album about At the very beginning of the opening track, the 63-year- underappreciated heroes of African American old alto saxophonist quotes “The U.S. Air Force Song,” bet- history, he wanted to tell those stories without ter known as “Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder.” That lyrics but with music that would justify the quote, however, is given the distinct warble of a Pharoah dedications. If a singer-songwriter wanted to Sanders phrase, with Lewis Nash’s rumbling drums and pay tribute to, say, Wendell O. Pruitt, he or an ostinato line from pianist Stephen Scott and bass- she could craft lyrics that describe how this ist Curtis Lundy reinforcing the connection to the iconic black pilot overcame discrimination to not avant-garde tenor saxophonist. only serve in the U.S. Air Force in World Watson quickly introduces a second melodic theme, a War II but to also win a Flying Cross for phrase that, thanks to the initial theme’s “wild blue yonder” his daring bombing raids. But for a com- suggestion, does sound like a plane taking off and cruising. poser of instrumental music, such as And when Watson plays a solo, his melodic loops, twists Watson, the challenge of saluting a spe- and turns evoke a daredevil pilot’s tricks. As a result, the cific individual is more complex. tune’s title, “The Aviator,” makes unarguable sense. For his new album, Made In “I was trying to put something in there so people would America (Smoke Sessions), Watson know I was talking about a pilot,” Watson explained during came up with an ingenious solution. a recent phone call from his home in Kansas City, Missouri. JULY 2017 DOWNBEAT 35 “When you’re soloing, you’re often asking your- self, ‘What can I quote over the chord changes?’ I decided to turn the quote into a head. My main theme is like, we take off, we come down, but that Pharoah Sanders part is like when you’re in ©MARK SHELDON the air in a dogfight and you don’t know if you’re going to survive.” Something similar happens in Watson’s tribute to Major Taylor, the African American bicyclist who became the 1899 world champion in the sprint event at a competition in Montreal. Watson found another tune to quote: “Popity Pop (Goes The Motorcycle),” first recorded in 1945 by singer-guitarist Slim Gaillard backed by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Nash’s intro for Watson’s “The Cyclist” fea- tures a stop-and-go rhythm that suggests a human-powered cycle rather than a motor-pow- ered one. That figure is then picked up by Scott, then by Lundy and finally by Watson, who adds Watson’s extensive discography includes more than 100 titles. a new melody of his own over the same pause- and-race rhythm. “It sounds like he’s on the pedals: He surges and takes a breath, surges and takes a breath.” ‘In history, as in music, a few people Watson said. “Major Taylor couldn’t ride in the pack, because people would throw water on him or stick something in his spokes to make get the credit, but a lot of people him crash. So he’d hang back and then fly to the front. That’s what we do in the song.” made it happen—and they shouldn’t “I based that rhythm on the rhythm and shape of the melody Bobby played and how he be overlooked.’ talked about it being a bicycle,” Nash recalled. “I tried to find the part that might sound like a Time.” The tune was written for Sammy Davis Jr., gation, so he learned how to find his note by bicycle. When I found it, he said, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’” who is probably the best known of the honorees singing along. He spent a great deal of time out- For this project, Watson chose not to salute on Made In America, but Watson still believes that doors, barefoot. such frequently lauded icons as Martin Luther his childhood idol remains underappreciated. “We’d spend the whole day playing in the King Jr. or Frederick Douglass. Instead, he “Sammy was the original Michael Jackson,” woods, picking apples, climbing over fences and decided to focus on folks who’d been over- Watson said. “He was a child star who could discovering a creek,” Watson recalled. “We’d be looked. So the album includes nods to actress sing and dance up a storm. [Later,] he influ- out till nighttime. It makes you unpretentious. It Butterfly McQueen, jazz guitarist Grant Green, enced Frank Sinatra and the whole Rat Pack. makes your music deceptively simple, even if it’s business pioneer Madam C.J. Walker, computer He could play the vibes and the drums; he complex underneath. Musicians hear my tunes scientist Mark Dean, horse jockey Isaac Murphy could act; he could do it all. When I started and say, ‘That’s nice—can I jump in there?’ But and U.S. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves. The track thinking about Sammy Davis, I asked myself, when they do, they soon discover there’s more listing on Made In America includes the name ‘How do you represent that in an instrumental?’ going on than they thought. Pretty soon they’re of each honoree as part of its song title. The answer was his tap dancing, and I cast the saying, ‘Hey, can I get a lead sheet on that?’” “The famous people have gotten theirs,” drums in that role.” Watson met Curtis Lundy at the University Watson said. “They’ve become part of the lex- “I’m old enough to remember when you of Miami in 1973. The two were part of the first icon and the fabric of the country. But there are didn’t see that many African Americans on group of African Americans to enroll in the other people who haven’t been recognized. And TV,” Nash said. “Davis was arguably the great- music program there, a group that also includ- if I can help that, I’ll be glad.” est all-round entertainer, so I wanted to make ed guitarist Hiram Bullock and Curtis’ older “When I was growing up,” Lundy explained, sure I was doing him justice.” sister, jazz singer Carmen Lundy. By then, “Black History Month was a big thing, but now Made In America closes with “I’ve Got To Watson was already a promising composer (he it doesn’t seem to amount to much. Bobby and Be Me,” which was a pop hit for Davis in 1969 majored in composition), but Curtis had more I had this discussion about how people forget (under the title “I’ve Gotta Be Me”). Watson’s experience as a bandleader, so they shared their that this music came from black folks right instrumental arrangement has become the knowledge and became lifelong friends. here in America. So I suggested the title Made saxophonist’s theme song. He hopes that his Watson arrived in New York on Aug. 24, In America. But how do you translate that into horn’s singing articulation of the melody will 1976. Trombonist Curtis Fuller took the 23-year- music? Well, music in its truest form is when be enough to remind listeners of the lyrics: “I’ve old saxophonist under wing and introduced him you take something from the imagination and gotta be me/ What else can I be but what I am?” to Fuller’s bandmates in Count Basie’s band. On you make it a concrete reality. Bobby has always Robert Michael Watson Jr. was born and Oct. 11, Art Blakey’s 57th birthday, Watson was been good at that.” grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. As a youngster, sitting in at Storyville when the drummer-band- The album includes a composition titled “The his church was so small that there was no dis- leader, renowned as a nurturer of young talent, G.O.A.T.,” which stands for “The Greatest of All tinction between the choir and the congre- came into the club. 36 DOWNBEAT JULY 2017 “He met me after the set,” Watson recipient of the first endowed chair at said, “and asked me if I wanted to join the University of Missouri-Kansas City the Jazz Messengers. It took me about a Conservatory of Music and Dance, he micro-second to decide. Art was the real became UMKC’s director of jazz stud- BART MARANTZ deal; he was the sound of jazz, a major ies—a position he still holds. part of the history. I knew it was a once- In 2011, his ambitious, seven-part in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I hung out album The Gates BBQ Suite merged with Art as much as I could. I was up in his roles as composer and educator, as his armpit for four years.” the critically acclaimed disc featured This was the Golden Age of jazz UMKC student musicians. apprenticeship. Bandleaders such as As his stature rose to tremendous Saxophonist Bobby Watson (center) performs in Jacksonville, Florida, with Thelonious Monk Institute Peer-to-Peer Sextet Blakey, Betty Carter, Horace Silver, heights in jazz education, his relocation saxophonist Robert Gilliam and trumpeter Brett Karner.