The band Charlie Watts thought defined American music: “That to me is America”
For many rising British acts in the 1960s, America seemed like ‘The Emerald City’ in some respects. As much as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones represented all of the best aspects of British rock and roll, they knew that they wouldn’t have been there without hearing acts like Little Richard and Elvis Presley before them. Charlie Watts was never that kind of artist, though, and listening back through his record collection, he felt that the core American sound came from jazz artists like Charles Mingus.
Despite being known as one of the world’s premier rock drummers, Watts was never ingrained in the genre as much as Keith Richards or Mick Jagger. He could still respect that it was steeped in the same traditions as blues artists like Muddy Waters, but anyone looking to expand their craft knew to take a few cues from jazz along the way.
Years before the era of fusion started, Mingus was giving a masterclass on how a bass should sound on his records. While there were many chaotic moments throughout his tunes, he always had a strong sense of control over every jam he played, almost approaching every line like part of some musical conversation.
That’s not that far removed from what the early rock and rollers did, either. Just listen to how artists like Presley enunciate or stretch out their lyrics for maximum impact, and it’s almost the same approach that artists like Mingus took when improvising, constantly turning the notes and gliding over the groove in a slightly different way every single time.
Watts wasn’t even the first drummer to take notice, either. While The Rolling Stones would never have been called jazzy by any stretch of the imagination, Cream’s Ginger Baker had the exact same method when playing drums, often going back to those old jazz records to study what they were doing.
Once The Stones crashlanded in America, Watts could have cared less about what acolytes like Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis next to Mingus’s work, saying, “(On our first American tour) I went to every single jazz club. I remember going to Birdland and seeing Charlie Mingus with his 13-piece orchestra. That to me was America – the rest I didn’t give a shit about.”
In fact, looking at where The Stones would go later, half of their 1970s output would be their own personal love letter to American music. Outside of just the blues, Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed wore their influences on their sleeves, whether it country music on ‘Dead Flowers’, straight-up blues on ‘Midnight Rambler’, and yes, even the occasional jazz-inclined jam session in the middle of ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’.
While Watts was more than capable of playing rock until the sun burned out of the sky, it’s people like Mingus that kept him interested in switching things up. No matter how many times someone plays a four-on-the-floor beat, Watts knew there were a lot more avenues to explore beyond that.
