Bobby Watson Reflects on Kansas City Roots

Some readers may have observed that recordings released by Smoke Sessions Records have frequently (if not often) been attracting my attention. The label was co-founded in 2014 by Frank Christopher and Paul Stache, and the repertoire has favored the post-bop genre. Since that genre has long been a personal favorite, it is no surprise that I choose to write about the label’s releases.

courtesy of DL Media

The next such release will take place this coming Friday. Back Home in Kansas City is led by saxophonist Bobby Watson. Watson is also a composer, and he is responsible for five of the eleven tracks on the album. He leads an all-star quintet, whose other members are Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Cyrus Chestnut on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass, and Victor Jones on drums. Chestnut and Jones each contribute a track. Carmen Lundy makes a guest appearance singing “Our Love,” which Watson composed with his wife Pamela. As expected, Amazon.com has created a Web page for processing pre-orders for the album.

It is worth observing that Wikipedia had to create a disambiguation page for “Robert Watson.” However, if you just type “Bobby Watson” into the search box, it takes you directly to the saxophonist. This is clearly the result of a well-earned reputation. He is a graduate of the University of Miami, where his fellow students included Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius. After graduating in 1975, he moved to New York City; and by 1975 he was Music Director of Jazz Messengers, a post he held until 1981. He has been performing with Lundy and Lewis since the Eighties.

In 2000 Watson left New York to serve as Director of Jazz Studies at the Conservatory of Music & Dance, which is part of the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus. He retired in 2020 only to confront the COVID pandemic. This gave him plenty of time to reflect on composition and repertoire. As COVID was gradually brought under control, Watson was able to return to New York and bring his past colleagues together for recording sessions produced by Stache and Damon Smith. All of the tracks are “live” performances that require no enhancement from post-editing.

While Watson does not appear to have had any professional contact with John Coltrane, who died in 1967, the Back Home in Kansas City includes the Coltrane standard, “Dear Lord.” This is but one of several engaging sources that “seed” several of the album tracks. The title track draws upon the more familiar “Back Home Again in Indiana;” but that source also found its way into Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee.” The title track is not the only one to hint at an earlier source. “Bon Voyage” draws upon Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage;” and Coltrane also surfaces when his “Giant Steps” finds its way into Watson’s “Side Steps.”

The result is an album rich with imaginative invention, which is likely to appeal to anyone that is really serious about listening to the exploratory side of jazz performance.