Jazz Articles about Jeff Tain Watts

About Jeff Tain Watts

Album Review

George Garzone: Themes For Good Friends

Read "Themes For Good Friends" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 14, 2026

Tenor saxophonist George Garzone, a driving force on the New England jazz scene for more than half a century, traveled to the famed Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey to record the genial Themes for Good Friends, his 13th album as leader, with an all-star supporting cast that includes trumpeter Randy Brecker on his quintet's front line. The rhythm section (Luis Perdomo, piano; Santi Debriano, bass; Jeff “Tain" Watts, drums) is no less impressive, lending Garzone and Brecker ...

Album Review

George Garzone: Themes For Good Friends

Read "Themes For Good Friends" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 3, 2026

Tenor saxophonist George Garzone's album Themes For Good Friends is especially satisfying because the musicians involved seem to be simply enjoying the music, with nothing to prove. In the beautifully recorded session at Van Gelder Studios, Garzone has surrounded himself with fellow masters, including trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Jeff Tain Watts, each of whom sounds like an old friend, listening closely and taking chances. The album opens quietly with Fred Lacey's ...

Album Review

Nat Reeves: Now In Time

Read "Now In Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 17, 2026

As a gift for Nat Reeves' 70th birthday in May 2025, Ken Kitchings, owner of the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut, said he would underwrite a recording for the renowned bassist using whatever musicians Reeves chose to recruit. Having played and recorded with a who's who of jazz luminaries during his 50-plus-year career, Reeves knew exactly where to go and who to contact. Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, a longtime colleague, was an obvious choice, as ...

Album Review

AS IS, featuring Al & Stacey Schulman: Crazy World

Read "Crazy World" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
May 1, 2026

What does it take to turn a romantic Cole Porter song into a powerful nine-minute protest piece? The band AS IS teases it out with a bit of a false trail to begin with: a tasty little scat intro, nicely-arranged. You might not suspect. Stacey Schulman brings the head in with a slight tweak to the lyric ("From this moment on, we can see clear: only truth can fight fear..."). Jeff Tain Watts launches what becomes a shipload of hydrodynamic ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: City Life: Music of Gregg Hill

Read "City Life: Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
June 24, 2025

Michigan-based composer Gregg Hill is on a remarkable roll, authoring an impressive run of compositions represented on eight albums released on the Origin Records label. Each has featured a bandleader associated with the top shelf staff at Rodney Whitaker's jazz program at Michigan State University. City Life (2025) is the third under the leadership of trombone great Michael Dease. The two-disc release includes 19 compositions from Hill, and features a cast of some of the most powerful voices in jazz ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: City Life: Music of Gregg Hill

Read "City Life: Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 21, 2025

Jazz trios featuring a horn, bass and drums get right to the core of musical expression. With, most commonly, a saxophone--see Sonny Rollins' blueprint for the horn and trio setting, the 1957 Contemporary Records album Way Out West--the music flows freely. The players do not need to chase chords around. The result is a stretching of the melodies with freewheeling rhythmic finesse. Trombone, bass and drums outings are rare, but Michael Dease goes for it on CD 1 ...

Album Review

Art Baden: How Much of It Is Real

Read "How Much of It Is Real" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
February 27, 2025

Continuing its well-established mission of documenting some of the noteworthy Russian musicians in today's jazz, the Rainy Days label offers another up-and-comer, tenor saxophonist Art Baden. Joined by three seasoned veterans, Baden provides both fire and sensitivity on his debut disc, How Much of It Is Real--and it is a promising effort all-around. Bassist Jay Anderson, vibraphonist Joe Locke and drummer Jeff Tain Watts will need no introduction to serious followers of mainstream jazz, and they give Baden ...