Album Notes

"Watts plays in a virtuosic post-Coltrane style, with a fine, distinctive tone and an expansive technique that permits him to generate long, cleanly articulated lines that dance along confidently even at challenging tempos.... But he can easily shift to a warm expressiveness, as he demonstrates on such slow tunes as the ruminative "Enchanted." And he gets a lovely, mournful sound on the Spirit Flute for the exotic, folklike title track." JAZZTIMES April 2006

One of the tracks from this recording "Cirle of Friends" best describes the group on this CD, ERNIE WATTS QUARTET. Watts has been playing with these musicians so long, they maintain their musical connection effortlessly. They often don't need to communicate in words. And these four players have personal, as well as musicAL ties -- they are family to each other, which adds another dimension to the music. As Ernie says, "We have history. When you play with the same people for a long time, the music evolves organically into a group voice, rather than four separate voices. Instead of playing music together, we become music together. This is a real band" ERNIE WATTS QUARTET brings "Spirit Song" to life!