Distinguished with the Swing Without him, the Rolling Stones were probably long gone: The drummer Charlie Watts has almost fifty years the beat behind the band compositions by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Today he celebrates seventieth birthday.
Edo Reents
Keith Richards once said that Charlie Watts was the only white drummer who could swing
It is the nature of things and yet it is a paradox that the drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band called frequently, the pole – is resting and at the same time, due to his strong metric understanding of music and instrumental skills, a certain dissatisfaction with the repertoire of the day shall, centrifugal forces developed. In other words, rock drummers often have a fondness for jazz. This was mainly in Britain so with Ginger Baker, with Jon Hiseman and of course Charlie Watts.
Since Bill Wyman’s resignation, the oldest Rolling Stone takes on for thirty years, swing panels, which are distinguished by an elegant conservatism, which he lays in his clothes on the day. To hear them, undisturbed by guitar riffs that Keith Richards meant when he said, Charlie Watts was the only white drummer who could swing. This he does not from above, but discreetly from below. He cultivates a rhythm often devious delaying and has enriched with his dry style of the Jagger / Richards compositions, some call laid back.