Marzette Watts — Marzette Watts & Company

This CD is a reissue of a 1966 free jazz release, which was the first album from Alabama born jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist  Marzette Watts.  Marzette was a fairly key figure with-in the 1960’s American free jazz movement, and was known most for his loft parties where the likes of  Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders played. “Marzette Watts & Company”  original appeared on the legendary free jazz label ESP Disk, who  have now reissued it again.

The reissue comes in a mainly black & white inked digipak, that features a 12 page booklet that has a write-up about Marzette’s career, the albums recording & instrumental credits etc. All told it’s an adequate if little sparse bit of packaging.

The album features three tracks in all, and these last between just over the seven & a half minute mark to just shy of the nineteen & a half minute mark. And for the three tracks Watt plays a mixture of tenor/bass Sax & bass clarinet, and supporting to him are: Byard Lanchaster on alto sax, flute  & bass clarinet. Cifford Thomas on trombone & Cornet. Sonny Sharrock on guitar, Karl Berger on vibes,  J.c Moses  on drums, Juni Booth on bass (track three) & Henry Grimes playing bass on the other two tracks.

Watts composed & wrote all three tracks here, and each of the three track move from mournful almost lopsided cinmatics, to fairly manic & urgent instrumental pile-ups, and everywhere in-between. The selection of instruments used here managers to make this a bit more varied & layer distinguishable compared with some free jazz I’ve heard in the past, and in particular the vibes give the whole thing often a quite playfully/ buoyant edge.  As you’d expect the sax players spin, weave & honk complex patterns around each other, as thier backed  by rises in cornet, trumpet, & flute. And the bass darts in & out of the mix, with the guitar scuttling & twisting though the pieces structures, while waves of complex percussive matter move in & out of the mix.

All three tracks here are played with great flare & passion, and on the whole the album mangers to be nicely shifting/ snaking in both pace & composition. By all accounts Watts, along with the members of his collective, made only a few recordings- so it’s nice this is back in print, so it can be enjoyed with the more effective & rewarding releases that appeared under the American free jazz bracket.