By Fred Jung

It doesn't surprise me that in the country that catapulted the Macarena into history, which we are still trying to live down, drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts isn't better known. Depending on the day, I'm not certain which tragedy I am more ashamed of. A close associate of mine described "Tain" as "the most intense percussionist he had ever seen". Not to bite off the insight of my dear friend, but I would have to agree. I have been waiting for a "Tain" album longer than I have been sitting on my hands in hopes of another Raider Super Bowl victory, and that's a long time. So when Branford came aboard with Columbia, I got wind that a "Tain" CD was in the works. And finally, after years of anticipation, "Citizen Tain" is unveiled. It is my privilege to introduce Mr. Jeff "Tain" Watts, whose new recording is my overwhelming choice for Album of the Year honors. But, let him tell you, as always, uncut and in his own words.

FJ: Let's start from the beginning.

JTW: OK, I just basically got into, specifically into jazz music through the, I don't even know. I started playing drums through the public school music system, playing in the high school band and orchestra and stuff like that and marching band. I'm originally from Pittsburgh. I was born January 20, 1960. After high school, I went to college and I was a classical percussionist and studied with some people affiliated with the Pittsburgh Symphony. I stayed there for two years and while I was there, when I was in high school I started to play a little bit of drum set. I was into a lot of fusion and stuff like that. My brother used to get me fusion records for my birthday. While I was in classical school there, I started to listen to Charlie Parker and I took some lessons from a drum set player, the great Roger Humphreys, who is the drummer on the original "Song For My Father," by Horace Silver when he was like nineteen or twenty years old. He still lives around the Pittsburgh area. I started to play more jazz, in addition to playing classical music and fusion and stuff like that. Then after two years of the school in Pittsburgh, I went to the Berklee College of Music for two, two and a half years. That's where I met Branford Marsalis and he brought me to New York in January of 1982.

FJ: How would you categorize your relationship with Branford through the years?

JTW: It's been different. He brought me to New York to play in Wynton's band. At the time, I didn't know him then. I felt like he was a friend and stuff, but I didn't really know him that well. He had let me know that he was going to have Wynton hire me. At the time, I really didn't even believe him. Just in general, he's a friend and a brother, a man of his word, which is all you can ask from anybody these days. He's a really good person and cares about people.

FJ: People probably missed the fact that you were in a major motion picture, so let's touch on your role in Spike Lee's "Mo' Better Blues" with Denzel Washington.

JTW: Just briefly, it was kind of strange. We had recorded the music for the film already. One day I was at a Knick's game because Branford, he has tickets all the time. At halftime, Spike kind of walked around and he knows where his friends are sitting in different sections. He kind of just passes by and talks to them. So I was sitting with Branford and at the time, he wanted to, he came over and asked me to serve as a consultant, to teach an actor how to look like he was playing the drums. At the time, they were going to use this actor, Darrell Bell, Dwayne Wayne's friend on "A Different World." I guess he had played some drums too, to my knowledge, but I was supposed to make him look like he was playing the drums. That is what Spike asked me at this Knick's game. In between that and what actually happened, I guess he discovered that it was really, for authenticity, that it was really, really difficult to pull this off, so we had a series of auditions in New York that I was not made aware of. Drummers like Carl Allen and Trey Davis, just many, many drummers in New York, they auditioned for this part. They had to read some dialogue and stuff like that. Then after that, Spike auditioned in Chicago. He was still looking for a drummer and he hadn't found one. We just happened to be playing in town with Branford and he came down to the gig and asked Branford and Kenny Kirkland, "I can't find anybody to do this." And they said, "Why don't you ask Jeff?" And he said OK and that was it. But it was really fun. It was a lot of fun and just a very different experience. All the guys in the band, they are just really good people and friends today, from having worked together because we had to really spend a lot of time with each other as a band on and off the set. They were just very nice brothers.

FJ: Did you get paid?

JTW: Yes (laughing). I mean, you always want a little better. He did fine.

FJ: You were also the original drummer for The Tonight Show with Leno. You went with Branford to Los Angeles when he became musical director for that show. Set the rumors straight.

JTW: It was cool. It was cool for about a year and then after that, it became a little constrained as far as the music that they wanted us to do to fit the format. It was a combination of that being my main job and living in Los Angeles, which really wasn't for me. I feel that if The Tonight Show were shot like in your area, Fred, like in the Bay, or in Chicago, or maybe DC, or Atlanta, or something like that, I think I would probably still be there, or it would feel like just a place that I could be, or in New York, ideally in a way. It was just a combination of the Los Angeles thing. It was just a whole other thing, another kind of industry town.

FJ: What is it about Los Angeles?

JTW: There are so many differences. I'll just say that there has to be one so that can be the other. New York is not for everybody and LA is not for everybody. That's the best thing I can say about it. That's the best thing I can say about it. There are differences in every way. The way that it affected me most was just the artistic community is a little more covert out there. You really have to look around and augment, I don't know, you just have to form your own group of people. I don't know, just the artistic community is different out there. The work force is different because of the industry based out there. It doesn't flow. I just prefer the East Coast.

FJ: Let's talk about your time with Wynton.

JTW: Wynton, Fred, Wynton, he was just like a very together person. At the time, when he was my bandleader, he was like the youngest person in the group for a while, until Charnett Moffett got into the group. He just has a very serious work ethic. He's very, very organized. That's hopefully what I got from him. He just really, really loves music.

FJ: Branford.

JTW: Branford, I don't know. You just pick up little things. Even though they served as my leaders, we all kind of came up in this music together. Everybody is just constantly together and listening and learning about the music together. It's mostly like stylistic things, just the way they approached writing stuff and just the way they carried themselves as men, not so much like the younger musician playing with them in an apprentice type of situation. It was another dynamic.

FJ: Kenny Garrett.

JTW: Oh, yes, Kenny Garrett.

FJ: I just saw him yesterday at Sweet Basil.

JTW: Oh, OK, so you're in town, Fred. You're right there. I'll probably go tonight or tomorrow. He's just a very, he has a lot of perseverance. He's kind of groove conscious and stuff like that. It probably feels more important for him to really try to consciously connect with the audience and stuff like that and so that permeates his whole thing, the type of music that he has and whatever. He writes that way. He has music that requires that much of a connection with people. He just feels good. He feels good. I just get that from him. He goes up there and he's pretty much an honest player and very naked with this stuff.

FJ: You know you've been my favorite drummer for the longest time. "Citizen Tain" is your debut record, what took you so long?

JTW: I wasn't writing. I guess I was too busy interpreting other people's stuff. This is the good thing that happened from me being in Los Angeles because I wasn't satisfied and whatever, so in the evenings I would write. I didn't feel like that much of an artist while I was out there. That's the thing. We were in the entertainment industry pretty deep. Just as far as the artistic thing, it was something else, but that's where I wrote a lot of this music. Kenny Kirkland and I had a two family house. At nights, I would just go over there and play his piano and write or play his mini-workstation and write and stuff like that. He was just very encouraging. Somehow it was at the right time. Everybody has an architecture for musicians. It's like an Amway type of thing. The guy comes on the scene and then he plays with a lot of people. He plays with a certain amount of people and then he's supposed to put out a record or whatever. Of course, it's nice if he has his own music as soon as possible, but even the music that I've recorded, some of it has been around for a while. I was just trying to refine it a little bit. Everybody has a different line.

FJ: You mentioned your close relationship with the late Kenny Kirkland. If anyone knew Kenny, you did.

JTW: Oh, man (sighing). He was just a very ingenious person, with his own way of looking at the world. The sound first of all, just a sparkling, sparkling sound, it was a gift that made people feel good, in addition to all the complexities and stylistic things and musical things. Everybody liked to play with him, Fred. He could make the whole band swing on his own and he always played the right stuff. It was like he was a really, really great session type musician and then a really, really great composer and then a really, really great improviser. Just role them all up. He was a really beautiful person that everybody loved. He made everybody feel like they were his best friend. There was no such thing as an undesirable person to him. He could see a quality in somebody that's redeeming. So there was no such thing as an undesirable.

FJ: You miss his genuine nature?

JTW: Yes. Yes. He was very, very genuine and very, very real and completely against pretension and all that stuff. He was not evasive of people's stuff and vibe. He was just a real peaceful citizen of the world, a nice cat. The way he sounds, that's the way he is. That's the way he was. I think that's why he was so versatile, not necessarily from sitting down and studying these different styles and stuff like that, but just from being really honest when interfacing with the music and with musicians.

FJ: Let's get back to "Citizen Tain."

JTW: A lot of the music I wrote while I was in Los Angeles. This is some of the first music that I've written. It is easily within the first dozen songs or so that I've written. I just started writing and writing and after awhile, Kenny would be kind of observing me and he was like, "Man, you know you have enough music for a record." When I came back to New York in 1995, I pursued, I started actively pursuing the bandleader type of thing. I just wanted to get the music recorded before it got too old. I approached a couple of labels. I tried to talk to Verve and GRP and some other people. I had a certain amount of it recorded, but I think a lot of it was recorded in computer format so they didn't really know how they could see ahead on how it could be. So Branford signed me to the label. It's kind of like an all-star date, but I didn't really, I just called people. I don't have a band right now, but soon I will. I just called some people that I was accustomed to playing with and they're really great musicians. They were really just patient and nice. They gave me the type of energy and courtesy that I've tried to give them. There's always more that you can do, but I try to give them for their projects and stuff like that. I didn't have to say anything to them.

FJ: You got a band in the works?

JTW: Oh yes. There's going to be a couple of different incarnations and stuff like that. I have to do a gig next month in New York just for press and stuff like that. I will have a group there. It's going to change. It's going to change.

FJ: What are you going to use?

JTW: I'm going to play at the Jazz Standard in New York. I think around the 21 or 23. This is going to be a quintet.

FJ: You made a reference in your liner notes how you were in Los Angeles when the Northridge Quake and Turkey just had an earthquake.

JTW: Just in general, it confirmed to me the urgency of life in general and stuff like that, which of course will affect the music. It made it more urgent for me to get back to the East Coast also. I don't know, just in a lot of ways, just in a lot of ways. I was basically helpless and faced with certain demise. There's a million ways that you can change. It wasn't any deep trauma or anything. You just have to put yourself in the hands of God and just get through this thing. I mean it's weird.

FJ: I have to apologize because I know it's been beaten into the ground, but how did you get the name "Tain"?

JTW: Oh, here we go, Fred.

FJ: I had to ask.

JTW: (Laughing) I know. I was in Florida with Wynton. We were driving rental cars from West Palm Beach to Miami and Kenny Kirkland and I were in a car. We drove through one of those outdoor safari things with the drugged up animals, bears and lions and stuff like that. We left there and went past a gas station and it was called Chieftain Gas. And he said, "Chief Tain, oh, Jeff Tain, that's going to be your name." And I was like, "Sure, right." And the rest is that's it.

FJ: It stuck?

JTW: It stuck like a moth.

FJ: Are you happy with it?

JTW: It's cool, Fred. You can't really pick your nickname. I mean, it has absolutely no meaning at all, which is actually cool. It's wild.

FJ: What's in the future for "Citizen Tain"?

JTW: Just more music and different music. You can expect me to be playing the drums a lot better like around the end of this year. I'm just trying to broaden, just broaden in general. Just really try to tie the music in with living and let the music take me around the world to meet different people so I have some life to put back into the music and stuff like that. All these different signs that I get, losing more brothers and losing Kenny last year, but even aside from that, it's just very urgent for me to really represent. I will just be trying to play better and trying to write better and just being real serious about recording and the opportunity to make music.

FJ: It won't be another ten years before we see another album.

JTW: Oh, no, no. I have most of it written now. I leave a lot of gray area in it so there's stuff that musicians can bring to it. I don't like telling people exactly what to say. I have a lot of the music now but it will change as people play it. Hopefully by next summer, I will have recorded my next record.

FJ: Finish this sentence, Jeff "Tain" Watts is?

JTW: Jeff "Tain" Watts is wow, wow. Jeff "Tain" Watts is a servant of the world.