Calling You Home is a solo piano album, full of contrasts and different moods, created by a very gifted musician and composer.

Release date: Available now

Label: Jim Watson Recordings in association with ECN Music

Format: CD / digital / vinyl

Jim Watson is a pianist, keyboardist and composer, who with the album Calling You Home, has put together a fine collection of original compositions, and new arrangements of jazz and pop standards, for solo piano. With roots in the jazz world, Jim Watson has also played with a wide ranging and diverse list of musicians, including appearing live with Sting and Zero 7.

In traversing the album, we will look at highlights from the three different compositional elements which make up the record: the original compositions; new arrangements of jazz standards; and reimagining of iconic rock and pop songs. 

BLENDED CANVAS OF HARMONIC VOICES

Beginning with the original compositions. Terzetto is a wonderful piece that offers a blended canvas of harmonic voices. There is drama and flow in the playing, that echoes both a serious emotional dialogue and playfulness. The effect is to intimately draw you into Jim Watson’s beautifully nuanced piano work.

Calling You Home, the title piece, is an intensely moving listen. The weaving of several thematic melodies into a musical narrative, that speaks to the centrality of connection and place, is quite enthralling. It is here that the sympathetic engineering and mixing by James McMillan really shines, enabling every touch of the keys and reverberation to be heard, as if you are a guest in the studio with Jim Watson.

Darkstar Sky is a rhythmically complex piece, that put this listener in mind of the intricate jazz fusion sketches of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever. Given that Return to Forever, at its height, featured a quartet of highly skilled musicians at the top of their game, then for Darkstar Sky to convey this musical resonance on solo piano, must be considered a major achievement.

SPARKLING PLAYING

Moving into the new arrangements of jazz standards. Hoagy Carmichael’s The Nearness Of You immediately stands out, with its sparkling playing. Here the piano has the quality of a peal of bells ringing out, together with contrasting moments of quieter intimacy. 

Thelonious Monk’s Round Midnight is empathically reinterpreted, providing it with a pastoral, almost spiritual context, while respectfully putting its captivating melodies in the foreground of the piece. It is a quite hypnotic take on this classic, that offers something very original and compelling in its reframing.

A STANDOUT MOMENT ON THE ALBUM

Turning our focus to Jim Watson’s reimagining of some iconic rock and pop songs. The centerpiece must be the new perspective on The Weight, from The Band’s influential debut album, Music From Big Pink. It brings a propulsive drive to this great song, emphasising the blues inflections, while also adding some gentle jazz improvisations. Quite simply a standout moment on the album.

The reading of Old Friends, from the Simon & Garfunkel album Bookends, is the lengthiest track on the album, clocking in at just over six minutes. This offers just the right amount of creative space to bring out the compassion and poignancy inherent in Paul Simon’s composition.  Jim Watson’s playing here is contemplative, where the notes seem to hang in the air, and the pacing of each piano phrase is quite exquisite. 

HEARTFELT AND SOULFUL PLAYING

This is an album full of contrasts and different moods. Created through heartfelt and soulful playing, and thoughtful arrangements, from a very gifted musician.  It is an album to be enjoyed, with music that offers a warm and engaging sense of connection. 

You can view here a short video of Jim Watson experimenting on an acoustic piano, and the Rhodes electric piano, on the Tetrad composition, from the album:

 Jim Watson online: Website

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