Arts & Entertainment
Jazz Legend Bobby Watson Graces Stage at Side Door Jazz Club
Bobby Watson Celebrates Art Blakey Centennial & Mourns Roy Hargrove. Watson Urges Locals to Embrace Live Jazz Offered at Old Lyme Inn
Old Lyme, CT - Bobby Watson formerly of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers recently spent a two-night stint at the Side Door Jazz Club with other Jazz Messenger Alumni. Art Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) would have been in his ninety-ninth year. Art Blakey Bio Watson's combo already has two years’ worth of dates on the books to fully commemorate Blakey’s centennial.
Mr. Watson and I covered a wide breath of topics in this interview which one will want to view in the links herein. Bobby and I discussed his and Blakey’s approach to mentoring young musicians. Watson winds down his academic career this year but not his involvement with youngsters looking to him for his depth of knowledge and advice. “Love yourself and love your sound” recounted Watson as a mantra he imparts to burgeoning youngsters in the jazz idiom. Bobby and I discovered we shared an affinity for ethnomusicology and the more obscure figures in African American history.
Find out what's happening in The Lymesfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
A few days ago, the world lost my generations Mile Davis, a man named Roy Hargrove. Roy Hargrove Bio
Find out what's happening in The Lymesfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Roy pushed boundaries like Miles and Bobby Watson. Watson mentioned how Art Blakey would admonish his pride of young lions on set breaks if they weren’t making mistakes on stage because those inadvertent pops, honks and notes defined the genre of free jazz. Sadly, too many players went down the rabbit hole of heroin use in the bebop era chasing the keys to free jazz but all they got were shackles. Those who were acquainted with Roy Hargrove knew that he would keep his head above the surface only as long as any other man that was shackled.
Bobby Watson celebrates the life and lessons of Art Blakey on his latest tour while he mourns the loss of his protégé, Roy Hargrove. Mr. Watson left the good folks of the Shoreline with a final thought that I will carry for a long time. He lauded the wonderful gift that is the Side Door Jazz Club and he urged one and all to experience live jazz despite any preconceptions one may hold about this American art form. Every weekend the Side Door offers the public the same artists that frequent top-flight New York venues without the time and expense one incurs traveling to Manhattan. Love yourself and the others around you through jazz, its right here waiting for you.
About Jim Carty: Mr. Carty has produced and hosted blues, jazz and American roots radio shows in Boston and Pittsburgh. He booked legendary acts such as Jay Geils, Big Jack Johnson, Ronnie Earl, Alvin "Youngblood" Hart, Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin to name a few. As a concert producer he has worked with members of the Allman Brothers, Guns and Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bad Company, Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, Kiss and many others. Jim was proudly tapped as the host of the Centennial Celebration of the Blues at Tanglewood. He spent several years as an Old Lyme resident in his youth and he has recently returned home to the Connecticut Shoreline.
