The excerpt from the interview that's getting a lot of play on other Stones sites:
Charlie Watts: "What is a good drummer? Someone who has the swing."
Benedicte Rey
Agence France-Presse/Paris
Charlie Watts devotes himself to his lifelong passion, jazz. And whether
playing rock or boogie-woogie, there is one thing that matters to the Stones
drummer, "the swing".
"A good drummer is someone who can swing and make you dance. If a drummer is
able to make you dance, it takes you back to Africa, the roots of everything,"
he said in an interview with AFP.
What made him fall in love with jazz? "Swing. I can't be more specific than
that, it's the basis for all."
Charlie Watts discovered jazz at age 13 with neighbor Dave Green, the "D" of
"The A, B, C & D of Boogie-Woogie." "We listened to Duke Ellington, Charlie
Parker and Chet Baker and it was everything we dreamed of doing. This he does by
the way, he became a jazz bassist. And me, I play everything they pay me to
play."
He doesn't consider himself a jazz musician. Self-taught on drums, he learned to
play by ear. "I've never been in a school to learn to play jazz. It's not what I
like. What I like about jazz is emotion."
The music he plays with his quartet, the boogie-woogie, is "made for fun, a
night of dancing. No need to play complex asymmetrical measures for "fun."'
Playing in a jazz quartet and with the Rolling Stones isn't so different, he
assures. "One's just amplified and on a larger scale, while with the other is
smaller and quieter."
His best memory on stage? "I don't really have one. Most musicians are
interested in what comes next. If the concert the night before was great, we
want that night to be just as good."
Next year, the Rolling Stones will be celebrating their 50 year career, but
the drummer doesn't have much to say about that.
It's "primarily the record company" that will mark the occasion, perhaps with a
documentary. "I guess if we agree, we'll do some concerts...I doubt we'll do a tour."