The 'Stone' Charlie Watts brings the 'boogie woogie' to Barcelona
The drummer pays tribute to the origins of rock
JM Marti Font - Barcelona - 04/04/2011
Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones and fundamental pillar of the legendary band, will play three nights in Barcelona (from 5 to 7 April), Luz de Gas, with the ABC & D of Boogie Woogie - Watts along with pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters, and bassist Dave Green. Nearly 70 and pending whether the Stones will finally tour again, or at least record, Watts remains active thanks to his eternal love of jazz and rhythm & blues. A man of granite and few words, he answers telephone questions from this newspaper about the tour of small venues that takes him to the Catalan capital, but doesn't reveal anything about the Stones and the band's plans.
When asked whether they'll record a new album or are planning to tour, he says: "I don't know anything, we haven't discussed anything yet. The possibility is open, but there is nothing new."
As to whether he misses touring with the Stones, he said: "No, I don't miss the tour, I miss playing together and seeing them, but they live all over the world, so I only see them when they come to London."
Watts is even more elusive in referring to his relationship with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the rest of the band. "What do you think of the memories of Keith Richards?" asks the reporter, hoping he'll have something to say about the evils that the guitarist dropped in
Life, his autobiography. "Fantastic" is the answer. And when asked if he had fun reading the book and if he thinks they're true or fantasies: "I have no idea because I haven't read it."
He feels more comfortable when speaking only of music, especially what brings him to Barcelona: jazz and its closest relatives, which is what really mattered to Watts from an early age, prior to joining the Stones and what he's devoted most of his solo projects to. With Charlie Watts Quintet he made two albums about Charlie Parker, the great revolutionary of the genre:
From One Charlie and
A Tribute To Charlie Parker With Strings. Because Watts was a jazzman when the Stones called him to replace Tony Chapman in 1963, he contributed significantly to the band's approach to rhythm & blues. He also took part in the recording of the Howlin' Wolf tribute in London in 1971, with Jagger, Bill Wyman, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and other great stars."Wyman I keep in touch with and Clapton I see occasionally, but Wolf is dead."
Now doing something similar with boogie woogie, whose influence on the Stones, he says, is crucial, especially in regard to piano textures. Asked if the music of today interests him, he says: "No, and it never has. I just listen to old jazz or classical music. I listen to soul music a lot."
Translated from
El País 
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