Two-time Grammy-Award-winning saxophonist Ernie Watts teams up with his European band-mates on A SIMPLE TRUTH, which has just been released on the Flying Dolphin label. It is a thing of beauty.
For the past sixteen years, Watts has worked with pianist Christof Saenger, bassist Rudi Engel and drummer Heinrich Koebberling whenever he toured the continent. The rapport he enjoys with these A-list German musicians is evident on each of the CD’s eight cuts, some of which run as long as ten minutes. With Watts leading the way, the quartet plays impeccably and spiritedly on compositions by Keith Jarrett (No Lonely Nights), Billy Childs (Hope in the Face of Despair), and Dizzy Gillespie (Bebop), plus five originals written by Watts and Koebberling.
A SIMPLE
TRUTH is a concept album, a journey through a jazz day, starting with
early morning reflections, then plunging into the clash and clamor of
mid-day, followed by the intensity of evening and finishing off with a
soothing touch of warm and tender blues.
Last year Watts was awarded the Frankfurt Music Prize for his “strikingly
melodic saxophone style and his original tone language, with which he
has already enriched several generations of musicians. He has generated
an impressive artistic legacy.”
A SIMPLE TRUTH deserves equally high praise.
(erniewatts.com)