Charlie Watts

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Charlie Watts (2010)

Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts (born June 2, 1941 in Bloomsbury , Metropolitan Borough of Holborn , † August 24, 2021 in London ) was a British musician. From January 1963, almost since its inception, he was the drummer for the Rolling Stones .

Biography and music

Charlie Watts, 1965
Charlie Watts, 2006
Charlie Watts, 2008
The band The ABC & D of Boogie Woogie , 2010. From left to right: Axel Zwingenberger , Charlie Watts, Dave Green and Ben Waters
From left: Charlie Watts, Ron Wood , 2018

Watts was born in 1941 in London's University College Hospital, the son of truck driver Charles Richard Watts and his wife Lillian Charlotte Eaves. He grew up with a sister in Kingsbury, northwest of London in the county of Middlesex (now in the London Borough of Brent ). Between 1952 and 1956 he attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School.

At the age of ten he discovered his passion for American jazz (especially Charlie Parker and later John Coltrane ) and built his first drum from an old banjo . At Christmas 1955, his parents gave him a simple set of drums that he liked. With the neighbor boy Dave Green he first appeared in the band of the trumpeter Brian "Jo" Jones. In 1957 Watts moved to the Harrow School of Art , which he left in 1960 to work as a graphic designer in a London advertising agency. In 1961 he designed a children's book about Charlie Parker called Ode to a High Flying Bird , which was published in 1965.

From 1960 Watts played in the jazz formation Blues By Five after Alexis Korner became aware of him and had offered him to join his band Blues Incorporated as a drummer. But Watts had to go to Denmark for work until February 1962 . On his return he played in the trio of comedian and pianist Dudley Moore . Shortly thereafter, he joined Blues Incorporated. The first recordings (Blaydon Races / Uptown) were made on the Lyntone label in mid-1962 with singer Nancy Spain, Alexis Korner and his band . During a performance at the Ealing Club, Watts met guitarist Brian Jones . After an appearance in April 1962, the young Mick Jagger was hired as the band's singer.

In June 1962 Jones and Jagger separated from Blues Incorporated and formed the Rolling Stones with Keith Richards , Dick Taylor , Ian Stewart and Mick Avory . In December 1962, Watts left Blues Incorporated because he did not think he was good enough to play with such distinguished artists. At the same time, bassist Dick Taylor was replaced by Bill Wyman in the Stones . Since Mick Avory also left the Stones to join the Kinks , the band briefly performed without a drummer.

After a conversation between Ian Stewart and Watts, the Rolling Stones first appeared on January 12, 1963 with Charlie Watts on drums - a line-up that lasted for decades. Because of his dry, direct drum style, he was considered the rhythmic foundation of the band and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with her in 1989 . In the 1980s he toured with his own big band , which included fellow musicians such as Jack Bruce , Evan Parker and Courtney Pine . In 2001 he performed in Japan with a tentet that focused on jazz .

From 2010 Watts was increasingly on the road with the band The ABC & D of Boogie Woogie , founded in 2009 . In addition to Watts, the pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters as well as the double bass player Dave Green , with whom Watts had been friends since he was five, were involved in the boogie-woogie and swing project . In 2016, the Rolling Stone listed Watts as twelfth of the 100 best drummers of all time .

Instruments

Charlie Watts played a percussion company Gretsch , in the configuration bass drum , hanging Tom , he positioned separately on a stand, floor tom, snare , hi-hat , and four pools .

Private

Watts was married from 1964 to Shirley Ann Shepherd (born September 11, 1938); their daughter was born in March 1968. Together with his wife, he ran the thoroughbred Arabian stud in Halsdon in Devonshire .

Watts was known for his elegant clothing style. The English newspaper The Daily Telegraph included him in the list of the World's Best Dressed Men . In 2006 the Vanity Fair voted him into the Hall of Fame on the International Best Dressed List .

In the 1980s he had significant problems with drugs and alcoholism , which, among other things, led to the cancellation of the Dirty Work Tour ; but he was able to break away from the addiction .

In 2004 he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx , who had been a smoker for years . After radiation therapy , he was considered recovered and went on a world tour with the Rolling Stones again in August 2005. Charlie Watts died on August 24, 2021 at the age of 80 with his family in a London hospital.

Solo projects

  • Rocket 88 - Rocket 88 (1981)
  • Live - Fulham Town Hall - The Charlie Watts Orchestra (1986)
  • Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings - Charlie Watts (1992), with Gerard Presencer , Peter King , Brian Lemon , Dave Green
  • From One Charlie - Charlie Watts Quintet (1992)
  • Vol Pour Sidney (Aller) - Lol Coxhill , Elvin Jones , Lee Konitz , Charlie Watts and others. (Compilation, 1992)
  • Warm & Tender - Charlie Watts (1993)
  • Long Ago & Far Away - Charlie Watts (1996)
  • Charlie Watts / Jim Keltner Project - Charlie Watts & Jim Keltner (2000)
  • Watts at Scott's (live) - Charlie Watts & The Tentet (2004)
  • The Magic of Boogie Woogie - Charlie Watts, Axel Zwingenberger , Dave Green (2010)
  • Boogie 4 Stu - A Tribute to Ian Stewart - Ben Waters (2011)
  • Live in Paris - The ABC & D of Boogie Woogie (2012)
  • Charlie Watts Meets the Danish Radio Big Band (2017)

literature

  • Charlie Watts: The swinging stone (interview) Jazzthetik 95 (2012): 56–58

Web links

Commons : Charlie Watts  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bill Wyman, Ray Coleman: Stone Alone: ​​The Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band . Da Capo Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-306-80783-1 , pp. 90 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ With Nancy Spain (vcl) accompanied by Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor saxophpn), Cyril Davies (harmonica), Johnny Parker (piano), Alexis Korner (guitar), Jack Bruce (bass) and Charlie Watts.
  3. ↑ 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Rolling Stone , March 31, 2016, accessed August 6, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Hossein Amirsadeghi (Ed.): The Arabian Horse - Myths and Legends & History and Studs. Munich, 1999; P. 211.
  5. ↑ The International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame: Men | Culture | Vanity Fair. May 29, 2011, accessed August 26, 2021 .
  6. ↑ see the long Jagger interview “Jagger remembers. The ROLLING STONE interview by Jan S. Wenner “in: Rolling Stone Germany No. 1 v. January 1996, pp. 49-67; several hints, here v. a. P. 60
  7. ↑ Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is dead. In: Spiegel Online . August 24, 2021, accessed August 24, 2021 .
  8. ↑ On the compilation Watts can be heard in the pieces "Blues in the Cave" and "Laughin 'in Rhythm"; mitWatts played Evan Parker (sop, vcl), Lol Coxhill (sop, vcl, text), Brian Lemon (p), Dave Green (b vcl). See Tom Lord : Jazz Discography (online)


personal data
SURNAME Watts, Charlie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watts, Charles Robert
SHORT DESCRIPTION British drummer, member of the Rolling Stones
BIRTH DATE June 2, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH University College Hospital , Bloomsbury , Metropolitan Borough of Holborn , Middlesex
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH London