I first heard Jim Watson at the 2023 Newcastle Jazz Festival as part of the Nigel Price Trio. On that occasion he was depping for Ross Stanley and playing a Nord keyboard. With the explosive Joel Barford on drums, Nigel on guitar, the trio purt nigh raised the corrugated roof of the brewery.
It's a very different Jim Watson here. Solo piano, a mix of pop and jazz standards and some Watson originals - six of one and half a dozen of the other - all impeccably played.
The standards: The Nearness of You; Old Friends; The Weight; Body and Soul; 'Round Midnight and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered sat comfortably with the originals to the extent that sometimes I wasn't sure which was which thanks to Watson's reimagining of the familiar,
The originals: Midge (named after his dog); Terzetto (a musical composition for three voices!); Calling You Home (a musical homecoming); Tetrad (intricate); The Vow (a tribute to his marriage); Darkstar Sky (rhythmically intense).
As Jim Watson points out, "It's how I began as a child, alone with the piano, it's how we all start."
They don't all achieve as much as he has!
The release date for Calling You Home is scheduled for July 11 with an album launch at the 606 Club on July 8. Lance
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