Eternal Triangle: Gravity

What a coup on the part of Jazz in Britain to celebrate the launch of their new label with veteran Trevor Watts. It is a great experience listening to an eighty-five-year-old playing like an unshackled Ornette Coleman.

Jazz in Britain has set up a new music imprint: Jazz Now. The first release is Gravity by Eternal Triangle. Watts is a phenomenon. Just listen and enjoy the surge of music from this new group. What a celebration of the fullness of life and optimism.

Watts has emerged from the UK avant-garde. He has a vast curriculum vitae: Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Amalgam in the 1960s and '70s and Moiré Music in the '80s and beyond. Watts has commented on the intolerance and backbiting of the scene. He has gone beyond that now. This is a man who seeks out melodies, relishes tunes, loves rhythms. His music and his mind are effervescent.

Veryan Weston, who recorded and mixed the music at his studio, describes how they all got together for Watts' eightieth birthday and realised how compatible they were and how much they enjoyed playing. Weston previously played with Watts in Moiré Music and has performed as a duo with the saxophonist. Since then they have toured widely and honed the music. Weston uses the Nord keyboard to provide varied backgrounds and stimulating melodies. Jamie Harris was inducted into jazz drumming by Watts who thrust a drum at him one day. Like Watts he loves West African music and rhythms.

The heavy rhythm of "Sure" compels attention. Also compelling, is the opening commanding alto on "September." The Nord keyboard on "Jamon" shows a feeling for orchestral colour as Watts threads his way through the sonic byways. This is music of sheer pleasure. like great birdsong. These are three, don't-give-a-damn people, enjoying themselves, stripped back, stripped of pretension, creating music of clarity and simplicity. This is danceable music in the best sense of the word: music rich in melody and rhythm and improvisation.

Sometimes Watts has seemed curmudgeonly, musically and personally. Not here. This lean music is what he has always sought: to be himself. Perhaps, it has taken Watts all those years to find that.

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