Charlie Watts Quintet

By PHIL GALLO

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Charlie Watts Quintet (Henry Fonda Theater, Hollywood; 863 seats; $ 35 top) Presented by Nederlander. Reviewed July 15, 1996. The chance to see a smile hit the face of the ordinarily stoic Rolling Stones drummer passed through the intimate Henry Fonda Monday as Charlie Watts and a handful of Brit jazz stalwarts waltzed through standards and Bird-like instrumentals. Restraint and precision were the order of the evening with the band meshing better than on the current Pointblank/Virgin release "Long Ago and Far Away." Were this show plopped into a Hollywood Bowl lineup, the ballroom-style performance and repertoire would thrill an audience 10 times larger.
 
Band: Watts, Bernard Fowler, David Green, Peter King, Brian Lemon, Gerard Presencer, plus 21-piece Los Angeles Orchestra.
 

After an instrumental introduction, vocalist Bernard Fowler, a former Stones backup singer and leader of the Gotham rock band Nickelbag, sang with considerable assurance that belied what seems to be on disc a lack of familiarity with the songs. While he breaks no stylistic ground, he slides into each number like a foot into a worn loafer -- with ease and comfort.

In fact, that ease is the quintet's greatest strength -- and liability. Opening and closing the show with Charlie Parker-inspired tunes on the bright side of mid-tempo, perfs mirrored the neat and tidy ambience of the band's "A Tribute to Charlie Parker" from 1992.

Conductor and alto saxophonist Peter King and trumpeter Gerard Presencer have clear grasps of history, particularly the interplay of Bird and Dizzy Gillespie, and the two swap musical statements with a gleeful spryness. But as much as the notes are there, the soulful depth that marks many American players is absent and never is there any risk-taking. Audience, which included Mick Jagger, Bonnie Raitt and Peter Wolf, responded enthusiastically to every solo.

Watts, as he does with the Stones, avoids solos at all costs save for an intro on the encore. On "All or Nothing at All," he built up a head of steam with a jungle rhythm that, tucked inside the scrambling strings, made for the most intoxicating performance of the night.

Watts leaned a little too heavy on the cymbals as he kept time throughout the evening; a bit more drumming wouldn't be too much to ask for in this context.