What was The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts’ first band?
Today, Charlie Watts is almost exclusively known for his tenure keeping things steady behind the drum kit for The Rolling Stones. With Mick Jagger playing to the crowd up front, Keith Richards trying to steal his thunder on lead guitar, Bill Wyman looking for a bluesy groove, and Brian Jones constantly pushing things further, Watts knew his job was to hold things together at the back.
The drummer rarely added much in the way of a flourish or even a fill to a Stones number, but equally, he never put a foot or drumstick wrong. His parts were always well-thought-out and played to fit the piece of music they were providing the rhythm for. We’d soon notice them if they weren’t there. For example, what would ‘Get Off of My Cloud’ be without Watts’ carefully-timed snare hits? Or ‘Paint It Black’ without his iconic floor-tom opening?
He never got a lot of attention, but he never asked for it, either. As Watts saw it, he had his role in the band and knew his place. Besides, he famously wasn’t all that interested in the kind of music the Rolling Stones were playing. Fats Domino was just about the only rhythm and blues artist he enjoyed listening to. Otherwise, he stuck with his first musical passion, jazz.
“When they asked me to play,” he told the New Yorker about his first experiences in a blues band, “I didn’t know what it was. I thought it meant Charlie Parker, played slow.”
That was back in 1961 when the 20-year-old Watts was working as a graphic designer for an ad agency. He’d attracted the attention of the godfather of British blues, Alexis Korner, who’d spotted him playing drums for a jazz band in a central London coffee shop. Korner was putting together an R&B band called Blues Incorporated at the time with harmonica player Cyril Davis, and he asked Watts if he wanted to join.
The future Rolling Stone eventually accepted in February 1962 and joined a line-up which included Jack Bruce, who would become the bassist and lead singer of Cream later that decade on bass guitar. It was through playing with Blues Incorporated at London jazz and blues venues like the Marquee Club that Watts came across a much younger, harder-edged blues outfit led by Brian Jones. Ian Stewart, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were already members of the band when Watts was first asked to join it in the summer of 1962. He finally agreed the following January, leaving Blues Incorporated 11 months after he’d become a member.
So, was Blues Incorporated his first band?
Korner’s blues band was far from Watts’ first gig as a drummer, though. Blues Incorporated might have been the act that got him noticed by the Stones, but he’d already been playing the drums for jazz outfits up to three years before he started playing the blues. In fact, his first band was the Jo Jones All Stars, an ensemble bebop group which featured his neighbour and childhood friend Dave Green on stand-up bass.
Watts and Green were still at school when they started playing with the band in 1958. And while the former chose the path towards rock and roll, Green is still a professional jazz bassist today. He spent two decades performing with the legendary British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton, and even joined Watts’ own jazz quintet when the drummer founded it in 1991.
Leading his own jazz band had been a lifelong dream for the Rolling Stone, although it took the group almost 30 years to give him the time off from touring to do it. After quite the sidetrack, Watts eventually got back to playing the music he loved the most. Even if only his most ardent fans knew what he was doing. But it was never about the attention, anyway.
