Here we are, cruising under the top 40 radar, and leaving the maudlin sensibilities of monopolized radio frequencies for greener pastures.
Once again, we hit up The Internet Archive for inspiration. I saw the name Reggie Watts in the Live Concert Archive, and thought it sounded familiar so I checked it out. I’m not sure why the name was familiar. I think I might of been thinking of Nathan Watts, the bass player on Songs In The Key of Life (Stevie Wonder, but you knew that, right?)Turns out this mistaken identity moment yielded some cool stuff.
Reggie is an Interesting improvising vocalist, using looping and processing. Chats a lot, almost too much for my liking - but at least he has some interesting things to say. His website mentions he is starting to do comedy, which makes perfect sense. His stage banter is quick-witted and amusing.It just kinda gets in the way when you want music, which is what I’m after.Anyhoooo …he has a band project, Maktub. The appealing, hook laden mix of soul/funk/rock is worth consideration, if you dig that kinda stuff.
The Tunes: Catchy and hummable without being predictable and boring. I do most of my listening on my daily commute, and this past week I hopped off the bus with melodic hooks and good vibes a-plenty thanks to this recording. One of the hallmarks of a good melody in my book, is the ability to invoke other melodies without feeling copycat or derivative. For me, that happened a lot with this recording. Listening to these tunes pulled up fragments of pre-eighties Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys, Carole King, and Burt Bacharach. Clearly, the song writing here is based on a solid foundation, and a lot of well informed listening, yet still seeks and finds it’s own territory. The live setting shows the strength of the songs, unadorned as they are by studio production tricks and techniques.
The Players: Solid. There isn’t a lot of flash and virtuosity on display here. I suspect all players are capable of struttin’ their stuff, but their strength in this context is restraint, support, and tastefulness. Every note is played with purpose, and you get the sense that these guys are very much about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Just for the record, that is an excellent approach to making music.
The Recording: Pretty damn good for a live recording. It sounds like there are some edits between songs, which is fine by me - I’ve heard audiences clap and whistle before. The inevitable crowd noise is present, and Reggie tries to have some with it on behalf of The Boston Acoustical Research Team. The vocals come through strong and clear, with a balanced sound from the band. All instruments are audible, well defined, and in tune. There are a couple audio ‘oops’ , but nothing jarring .
Recommendation: Totally worth the bandwidth. The new album will be released in November 2007, and I’m looking forward to supporting this independent artist.
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