“Love Sings” evolved over 3 years or so. Life had so many changes with the extension of Covid and with1.0 just making life difficult for all of us. Periodically, I would just write something to calm me down or just let my imagination take over and see what happens. Then, when I introduced each song to Frank Wilkins he too, enjoyed stretching his arranging skills so we could perform the songs as a band. As seasoned musicians Dave, Alvin and Bobby enjoyed what we had done with my songs and when we chose to do the recording project each one added their own feel etc. to contribute their special touch. It evolved to the final product “Love Sings”
BIO
Jazz is a storytelling art, and vocalist/lyricist/ composer Joan Watson-Jones, who calls Derry, New Hampshire and New York City home, has a story to tell.
Armed with a master’s degree in music education from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Watson-Jones had a long and successful teaching career in The Bronx and in New England. But the jazz seed had been growing in her ever since she was a child in Harlem, where she took piano and tap lessons at the age of four. Later, she learned to play guitar and drums, and was coached and mentored by the late singer Joyce Bryant.
With her husband’s encouragement, Watson-Jones gave in to the inner urge of her jazz muse, and became a full-time vocalist, lyricist and composer after she retired from teaching. She has been a mainstay on the New England jazz scene for three decades, was voted Best Jazz Singer in New Hampshire by New Hampshire Magazine and produces and hosts her half-hour podcast, The Jazz Room-host Joan Watson-Jones
LINER NOTES
There are vocalists and there are singers. A vocalist hits every note perfectly, and has honed his or her craft to sonic perfection. A singer simply sings songs. The goal is not perfection; but communication. The vocalist is a high wire performer, while the singer tells stories closer to the earth.
Joan Watson-Jones is a singer. For three decades, the New York City-born, Derry, New Hampshire-based artist has been independently building herself into one of the most endearing and entertaining singer/lyricists of her region and generation, as evidenced by her four albums: One More Year (1996), I Thought About You ( 2006), Quiet Conversation – A Duet (2013) and Choices (2021). Buoyed by the piano and tap dance lessons she received as a child growing up in Harlem, along with her Masters Degree in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Watson-Jones – who also hosts the podcast, The Jazz Room – tells syncopated stories about life and love that everyone can relate to.
Which brings us to her latest recording Love Sings. “The album was a response to the beginning of the COVID period in 2020, when we were in quarantine. We were in confinement, and I’m not one to sit still,” Watson-Jones says. “So musically, the first thing I started doing was listening to everything outside, because that was my stimulus. So I had the birds.” For Watson-Jones, the compositions on this recording reflect a life cycle that occurs in middle age; a time for reflection and refinement. “There were things I feel folks have missed, and are missing out on,” Watson-Jones relates, “and there are some things in life that should never change just because you’re too busy or you’re too preoccupied. And right now, we are being distracted too fairly well, and since this is the ‘2.0’ of life for us being in this insane time, I just want people to hear… to remember what life is really all about.”
Those themes of life and love at a certain age abound on Love Sings, which radiants with Watson-Jones’ compositional and lyrical skills, which came to light when she met songstress extraordinaire Dianne Reeves. Compositionally, Watson-Jones draws from the composers of the American songbook, which includes the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart to name a very select view. Her lyrical prose is guided by her influential experiences as an educator. “I used to teach first and second grade, and the best thing you could do for first and second grader is pull out a little book and read them a story,” Watson-Jones fondly recalls, “and one thing I learned was, human beings do not change. The child that I knew in first, second and third grade… I run into them now. And the thing is: when I’m performing, everybody wants to sit down and listen to a good story.” Joining Watson-Jones in her storytelling with soul and syncopation are pianist Frank Wilkins, bassist Dave Zox, drummer Alvin Terry and saxophonist Bobby Tynes, all based in Boston, where she attended jam sessions in the late 90s.
Supported by Wilkins’ pristine and propulsive pianisms, Zox’s sumptuous basslines, Terry’s in-the-pocket drumming and Tynes’ lyrical sax lines, Watson-Jones’ breathy, light as a feather vocals christen and caress the CD’s 11 tracks. Save for an intimate piano/vocal duet rendition of the Gershwin classic “Someone to Watch Over Me,” the rest of the selections on this splendid recording are all originals.
“Love Sings” opens with a cymbal-shimmered, Coltranesque introduction pulsed by an Ahmad Jamal “Poinciana” beat, contrasted by whimsical waltz, “A Kiss in the Morning” and the atmospheric, “There’s a Hard Wind Blowin’” enhanced by the sound of an Australian didjeridoo. Watson-Jones’ wordless vocals and zesty scatting illuminate the Latin tinged selection, “Words Escape Me,” while “The Quiet Life,” and “I Choose to Have a Good Day,” showcase her skills as a balladeer. “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “Movin’ On” bop with an R&B bounce.
The emotional zenith of this recording is “Mountain” a medium tempoed composition with a theme of overcoming adversity in a peaceful setting complete with an evocative video version of the song. “[The selection] is inspired by an actual place: the Ben Cruachan mountain in Loch Ective, Scotland,” Watson-Joan says. She and her family would go there when she would visit her mother and father in-law in the highlands. “Every time we went there, it was total peace. My husband and I would go sit on a rock. All you heard was wind blowing and the seagulls making their sounds. It’s just very peaceful, comforting and a good place to go and get centered again.”
Watson-Jones’ songs of love and peace reflect an artist who is comfortable in her own septuagenarian, sepia-toned, skin. “The songs show how much I care about all the people around me,” Watson-Jones declares, “and all the people I’ve had in my life. A lot of people go through the same things that I went through, so I’m hoping that one or two of my songs might help someone get rid of their anger or heal pain.”
Eugene Holley, Jr. contributes to Down Beat. His work has appeared in Hot House Jazz Guide, Publishers Weekly, Humanities magazine and SF Jazz: On The Corner. His writings appear on his Substack.com page, Sound & The Mainstream – eugeneholleyjr1@substack.com
