As Best Classic Bands site reports, the first extensive anthology drawn from the bespoke jazz catalog of one of the world’s most loved and admired drummers, the legendary Charlie Watts, will be released on June 30, 2023, by BMG.
Titled simply Anthology, it will be available both in 2-LP and 2-CD editions, and according to the official announcement, it is a monument to the “other” musical identity of the giant who underpinned the Rolling Stones for more than 55 years. It draws on a nearly 20-year period in his substantial catalog of jazz recordings in various configurations, including quartet, quintet, tentet, and orchestra. The collection includes several previously unreleased tracks from 1978.
The retrospective begins with material from 1986, when Watts had his own name on an album for the first time – with typical modesty, some 25 years after his drumming first became the talk of his peers – on Live At Fulham Town Hall. It then features selections from the Charlie Watts Quintet’s 1991 mini-album From One Charlie, their albums A Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings (1992), Warm and Tender (1993) and Long Ago and Far Away (1996), the 2000 collaboration Charlie Watts – Jim Keltner Project and another live set, 2004’s Watts at Scott’s, as the Charlie Watts Tentet.
